Dataset for ecological and biophysical mechanisms of ecological restoration enhancing dryland carbon stock

<b>The effectiveness of natural climate solutions largely depends on how much ecological restoration can promote vegetation productivity, suppress carbon loss, and consequently enhance ecosystem carbon sink. In China, the potential of ecological restoration as natural climate solutions is primarily concentrated in dryland ecosystems in the vast North and Northwest areas, but this region is also vulnerable to carbon and nutrient losses due to soil erosion. It remains unclear whether the erosion-induced carbon and nutrient losses would undermine the effectiveness of ecological restoration in immobilizing carbon. Here, we provide a dataset derived from a 3.1 million km</b>^{<strong>2</strong>}<b> regional survey with 1599 degraded-and-restored plot pairs at 517 sites and a 13-year manipulative experiment mimicking wind erosion in China’s drylands. The dataset reveals the relative contributions of ecological (increasing plant carbon input) and biophysical (reducing erosion carbon loss) pathways to expanded ecosystem carbon stocks under ecological restoration.</b>

自然气候解决方案（natural climate solutions）的有效性在很大程度上取决于生态修复能够提升植被生产力、抑制碳损失，进而增强生态系统碳汇的能力。在中国，作为自然气候解决方案的生态修复潜力主要集中在广袤北方与西北地区的旱地生态系统，但该区域同样因土壤侵蚀而易发生碳与养分流失。目前尚不明确侵蚀引发的碳与养分流失是否会削弱生态修复的固碳成效。本数据集源自两项研究：一项是覆盖310万平方千米区域的调查，涵盖517个点位的1599对退化-修复样地；另一项是在中国旱地开展的、为期13年的风蚀模拟控制性实验。该数据集揭示了生态修复背景下，生态途径（提升植物碳输入）与生物物理途径（减少侵蚀碳损失）对生态系统碳库扩容的相对贡献。