research data.xlsx

This study conducted a desert plant community survey along the precipitation gradient of the Hexi Corridor, revealed the changing patterns of species and phylogenetic diversity indicators, and explored their environmental impact mechanisms in combination with climate and soil factors. The results showed that the species diversity index (Shannon-Wiener and Margalef) and the phylogenetic diversity index (PD) showed a hump model with increasing precipitation, reaching the maximum at medium precipitation, while the species evenness index (Pielou) and the phylogenetic structure index (MNTD and MPD) decreased with increasing precipitation, reflecting the differential response patterns of different dimensional indicators of diversity to precipitation gradients. In addition, we found that soil factors such as soil available phosphorus (SAP), soil total phosphorus (STP) and soil available nitrogen (SAN) dominated the variation of species diversity, and the phylogenetic diversity (PD) was also mainly regulated by soil available phosphorus (SAP), while the main influencing factor of the phylogenetic structure was the average annual temperature (AMT), indicating that the community diversity pattern was driven by soil nutrients and climatic factors. The study reveals the relative roles of different environmental factors in shaping community diversity and provides a scientific basis for formulating effective desert ecosystem protection strategies.