Scale-dependent stoichiometric buffering reveals the potential and limits of foliar C:N:P indicators in the halophyte Salicornia europaea

This dataset supports an evaluation of foliar C:N:P stoichiometric traits as ecological indicators in the obligate halophyte Salicornia europaea. Leaf and paired rhizosphere-soil samples were collected from 216 individuals across 18 natural populations in saline China, running from the Yellow Sea coast of Jiangsu at 32.78 °N to the Junggar Basin margin in northern Xinjiang at 47.23 °N, a span of 14.46° of latitude and 36.3° of longitude, with altitudes from 4 to 1887 m. Measured variables comprise leaf and soil carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, soil pH and soil salinity, with site coordinates and altitude. Carbon was determined by K₂Cr₂O₇-H₂SO₄ digestion with dichromate oxidation and titration, nitrogen by Kjeldahl distillation after H₂SO₄-HClO₄ digestion, and phosphorus from the same digest by the molybdenum-blue method. Soil pH was measured with a glass electrode in a 1:5 soil-to-water suspension and salinity gravimetrically as total dissolved solids. The deposit contains the raw plant-soil dataset, derived per-population results, the full statistical analysis workbook, and the Python scripts reproducing every analysis and figure. Analyses assess six candidate foliar indicators through relative buffering, multilevel within- and between-population coupling with population-block bootstrapping, population-specific homeostasis, within-population stability, and environmental attribution by redundancy analysis with three-block variance partitioning.