Dead moss-dominated biocrusts severely reduce deep water infiltration, with amplified effects under heavy rainfall events

Dataset “Soil Moisture - Source dataset”: contains soil moisture time-series data across different soil layers under three desert cover types—bare sand, living MBSCs, and dead MBSCs—from September 2020 to September 2024.Dataset “Meteorological data - Source dataset”: contains a range of data recorded by weather stations, including rainfall and temperature, used to determine and identify rainfall events and the corresponding soil moisture wetting events.