Data to the paper “The response of litter decomposition to extreme drought modified by plant species, plant part, and soil depth in a temperate grassland” by Seres et al. Ecology and Evolution (2022)

<strong>Study Description</strong> In this paper, we studied the effect of an extreme (5-month) experimental drought on litter decomposition, and if this effect varies with two dominant perennial grass species (<em>Festuca vaginata </em>and <em>Stipa borysthenica</em>), plant parts (leaves vs. roots), and soil depths (0–5 cm vs. 10–15 cm) in a semi-arid temperate grassland. We also examined the initial litter quality of leaves and roots of the two species. <br> <strong>File Descriptions</strong> This file collection contains two data files that support the results presented in the paper: Litter_decomposition_data.xlsx Litter_quality_data.xlsx Litter_decomposition_data.xlsx file contains the litter decomposition data that we collected in the field experiment (Data sheet), and the explanation of the data (Data description sheet). Litter_quality_data.xlsx file contains the initial carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) content, and the C:N ratio of the litter (C and N data sheet), the initial hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin content of the litter (Fibre data sheet), and the explanation of the data (Data description sheet).