Structural diversity surpasses species diversity in regulating the spatial variation of grassland productivity

Understanding the influence of biodiversity on ecosystem productivity remains an important question in ecology. Recent evidence indicated that structural diversity plays a critical role in regulating plant productivity. However, empirical studies examining the relationship between community structure and plant productivity across different environments in grassland ecosystems remain limited. This is partly because of the perceived simplicity of grassland structure and methodological challenges inherent in conducting detailed structural surveys.
In this study, we investigated the contributions of structural and species diversity to grassland productivity and their associated interactions along a precipitation gradient on the Mongolian Plateau. We collected precise coordinate and height data for 55,311 individual plants across distinct grassland types, enabling a systematic assessment of both vertical and horizontal structural dimensions. We hypothesized that structural diversity, encompa..., , # Structural diversity surpasses species diversity in regulating the spatial variation of grassland productivity

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.t1g1jwtfj](10.5061/dryad.t1g1jwtfj)

## Description of the data and file structure

Species diversity and structural diversity information of all plots.

### Files and variables

#### File: grass_plants_data.xlsx

**Description:** 

##### Variables

* Plot: plot ID of the data, categorical variable
* Site: site ID of the data, categorical variable
* AGB: above ground biomass, kg m^-2 
* Species_Richness: species richness of grassland community at each plot, count
* Shannon_Index: species diversity index of Shannon, unitless
* Simpson_Index: species diversity index of Simpson, unitless
* Pielou_Evenness: species diversity index of evenness, unitless
* Mean_height: the mean height of grass plants in each plot, cm
* GC: Gini coefficient, unitless
* CV: coefficient of variation of plants height, unitless
* VSR: vertical structural richness, count
* H-..., ,