Data underlying the publication: Forage quality in grazing lawns and tall grasslands in the subtropical region of Nepal and implications for wild herbivores.

We randomly laid down 1 m × 1 m quadrats with equally spaced grids of 10 cm × 10 cm in both the grazing lawns and tall grasslands. We laid down a total of 160 quadrats (eight in each sampling site) and recorded bare ground, litter, animal droppings and vegetation. Within each quadrat, we used the point intercept method at 100 sampling points to assess the percentage cover of the different plant species. We only used vegetation hits for calculating the Shannon-Wiener diversity index and species richness. We used grid corners as the point to record the hits. We measured grass height at three random points within each 1 m × 1 m quadrat with a ruler to 0.5 cm precision. We chose three different points in different direction within a quadrat to measure the grass height. We assessed grazing intensity by visually estimating the bite marks within a quadrat at a scale from 0 to 3 [i.e., 0 – not grazed, 1 – lightly grazed, up to 25% of quadrat area grazed; 2 – moderately grazed, (up to 50% grazed), and 3 – heavily grazed ( more than 50% grazed)]. We clipped the vegetation at ground level in a 20 × 20 cm frame in the centre of each quadrat and determined fresh weight using a digital weighing scale [with a capacity of 600 g and accuracy of 0.5 mg; Brand: Equal (class II)] immediately after clipping. We hand-sorted the samples into green leaf, green stem, dry leaf and dry stem which were subsequently dried in the shade at ambient temperature (~30 °C) for five days until air-dry before recording the air-dry weight. Air-dried samples of green leaf and green stem were stored in paper bags for separate chemical analyses. We collected soil subsamples from each quadrat. The soil samples (n = 20) were placed in airtight zip-lock plastic bags for chemical analyses. The dataset (file name: GrazingLawns_TallGrasslands_BardiaNP_Nepal.xlsx) contains three sheets: Sheet 1(veg_count_data) contains record of the grass species observed from 10 cm x 10 cm frame within a 1 m x 1m quadrat. Zero indicated – no record of species. Sheet 2 (Physical_chemical_prop) contains information on grass physical properties (height, biomass, bulk density, proportion of green leaf and stem) and soil chemical properties (soil pH, soil moisture, soil organic matter, soil nitrogen and soil phosphorus). Sheet 3 (Label) contains description for the variables mentioned in sheet 1 & 2.

本研究在放牧草地（grazing lawns）与高草草原（tall grasslands）中，随机布设1 m×1 m的样方（quadrat），样方内设置间距为10 cm×10 cm的均匀网格。共布设160个样方（每个采样点设置8个样方），并记录样方内的裸地、枯落物、动物粪便与植被覆盖情况。在每个样方内，采用点截法（point intercept method）在100个采样点处，测定不同植物物种的盖度百分比。仅以植被截获点数据计算香农-威纳多样性指数（Shannon-Wiener diversity index）与物种丰富度（species richness），并以网格交点作为截点记录植被截获情况。使用精度达0.5 cm的直尺，在每个1 m×1 m样方内的3个随机点位测定草株高度，且在样方内选取不同方位的3个点位重复测定。通过目视估算样方内的牧食痕迹来评估放牧强度，采用0~3级评分标准：0级代表未放牧，1级为轻度放牧（放牧面积不超过样方的25%），2级为中度放牧（放牧面积不超过50%），3级为重度放牧（放牧面积超过50%）。在每个样方中心的20 cm×20 cm样框内，于地面处剪取植被样品，剪取后立即使用量程600 g、精度0.5 mg的数字天平（品牌：Equal，二级标准）测定其鲜重。将样品手工分为绿叶、绿茎、枯叶与枯茎四类，随后在室温（约30℃）的阴凉处阴干5天至恒重，记录其风干重。将绿叶与绿茎的风干样品分装于纸袋中，以备后续单独开展化学分析。从每个样方采集土壤分样，最终获得20份土壤样品，将其置于密封拉链塑料袋中以备化学分析。本数据集文件名为GrazingLawns_TallGrasslands_BardiaNP_Nepal.xlsx，包含3个工作表：工作表1（veg_count_data）记录了1 m×1 m样方内10 cm×10 cm网格框中观测到的草本植物物种信息，数值0代表未观测到该物种；工作表2（Physical_chemical_prop）包含草本物理性状（株高、生物量、容重、绿叶与绿茎占比）与土壤化学性状（土壤pH值、土壤含水率、土壤有机质、土壤全氮与土壤全磷）的相关信息；工作表3（Label）包含工作表1与工作表2中涉及的变量说明。