A field-measured dataset of plant and soil characteristics spanning six grassland types in the Zoige, northeastern Tibetan Plateau, China
4 affiliations
- 1Institute of Highland Forest Science, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Kunming, 650233 China
- 2College of Forestry and Grassland, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037 China
- 3Sanjiang Group, Xining, 810003 China
- 4Yunnan Shangri-La Grassland Ecosystem Observation and Research Station, National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Diqing, 674401 China
Abstract
Grasslands, which cover nearly one-quarter of the Earth’s terrestrial surface, perform vital functions in carbon sequestration, biodiversity maintenance, and ecosystem stability. Zoige, situated on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, hosts one of the world’s largest alpine peatland grassland complexes; however, quantitative field-based ecological datasets remain limited, constraining biomass evaluation, productivity estimation, and large-scale carbon assessment. To improve the availability of ecological data and enhance the accuracy of grassland resource characterization, this study provides a field-measured dataset from 80 sampling plots across six grassland types in Zoige between 2020 and 2022, which captures variations in community structure, soil nutrient status, dominant species composition, and biomass allocation patterns. The dataset includes geographic coordinates, sampling dates, species inventories, species records, vegetation richness and coverage, aboveground and belowground biomass, and soil attributes including moisture, bulk density, organic carbon, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus. The results indicate that the number of species in each grassland plot in Zoige ranged from 16 to 44. The mean (±SD) aboveground biomass, belowground biomass, and total biomass were 464.70 ± 286.52 g/m2, 2,517.57 ± 1,239.84 g/m2, 2,982.26 ± 1,409.94 g/m2, respectively. Significant correlations were observed among the biomass variables, with belowground biomass accounting for approximately 84.4% of the total biomass. The dominant species contributed substantially to community biomass, highlighting their important role in shaping ecosystem productivity. These relationships suggest that belowground biomass and dominant-species biomass may serve as useful indicators for estimating plot-scale biomass patterns in Zoige grasslands. This dataset provides a baseline reference for Zoige grassland ecosystem evaluation and supports future applications in carbon cycle accounting, biodiversity conservation, ecological modelling, and integration into global grassland data frameworks.
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BibTeX
@article{zhu2026fieldmeasured,
title = {{A field-measured dataset of plant and soil characteristics spanning six grassland types in the Zoige, northeastern Tibetan Plateau, China}},
author = {Zhening Zhu and Yu Yin and Dexiong Xie and Wenliang Zhang and Wei Tang and Zizhi Wang and Wengui Wu and Shengxi Liao},
journal = {Scientific Data},
year = {2026},
month = jun,
doi = {10.1038/s41597-026-07747-6},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-07747-6},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - A field-measured dataset of plant and soil characteristics spanning six grassland types in the Zoige, northeastern Tibetan Plateau, China
AU - Zhening Zhu
AU - Yu Yin
AU - Dexiong Xie
AU - Wenliang Zhang
AU - Wei Tang
AU - Zizhi Wang
AU - Wengui Wu
AU - Shengxi Liao
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/06/26
JO - Scientific Data
DO - 10.1038/s41597-026-07747-6
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-07747-6
AB - Grasslands, which cover nearly one-quarter of the Earth’s terrestrial surface, perform vital functions in carbon sequestration, biodiversity maintenance, and ecosystem stability. Zoige, situated on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, hosts one of the world’s largest alpine peatland grassland complexes; however, quantitative field-based ecological datasets remain limited, constraining biomass evaluation, productivity estimation, and large-scale carbon assessment. To improve the availability of ecological data and enhance the accuracy of grassland resource characterization, this study provides a field-measured dataset from 80 sampling plots across six grassland types in Zoige between 2020 and 2022, which captures variations in community structure, soil nutrient status, dominant species composition, and biomass allocation patterns. The dataset includes geographic coordinates, sampling dates, species inventories, species records, vegetation richness and coverage, aboveground and belowground biomass, and soil attributes including moisture, bulk density, organic carbon, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus. The results indicate that the number of species in each grassland plot in Zoige ranged from 16 to 44. The mean (±SD) aboveground biomass, belowground biomass, and total biomass were 464.70 ± 286.52 g/m2, 2,517.57 ± 1,239.84 g/m2, 2,982.26 ± 1,409.94 g/m2, respectively. Significant correlations were observed among the biomass variables, with belowground biomass accounting for approximately 84.4% of the total biomass. The dominant species contributed substantially to community biomass, highlighting their important role in shaping ecosystem productivity. These relationships suggest that belowground biomass and dominant-species biomass may serve as useful indicators for estimating plot-scale biomass patterns in Zoige grasslands. This dataset provides a baseline reference for Zoige grassland ecosystem evaluation and supports future applications in carbon cycle accounting, biodiversity conservation, ecological modelling, and integration into global grassland data frameworks.
SN - 2052-4463
ER -