Dataset and reproducible code for herbaceous diversity, community composition, and soil–river section interactions in the Ulungur River Basin.

This dataset contains plot-level ecological data supporting a study on the effects of river section differentiation on soil properties, plant community composition, and herbaceous diversity in an inland arid river valley of northwestern China. It comprises site metadata, selected soil physicochemical variables, plant community importance values, diversity indices, species trait information, and an integrated dataset for multivariate analyses. All data were used to conduct non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS), redundancy analysis (RDA), and principal component–based structural equation modeling (SEM). The archived data enable full reproduction of all analyses reported in the associated manuscript and are suitable for reuse in studies of dryland ecosystems, biodiversity–environment relationships, and multivariate ecological modeling. If you use this dataset or the associated analysis code, please cite: Zidong Zhang, Zhifang Xue, Tiantian Qin, Shengtianzi Dong, Hanyue Wang. (2025). Dataset and reproducible code for herbaceous diversity, community composition, and soil–river section interactions in the Ulungur River Basin. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18045991