Natural forests accelerate soil hydrological processes and enhance water-holding capacities compared to planted forests after long-term restoration

This dataset supports the article titled “Natural forest accelerates soil hydrological processes and enhances water-holding capacities compared to planted forests after long-term restoration”. It includes long-term field monitoring data (2006–2024) from the Caijiachuan catchment on the Loess Plateau, China. The dataset comprises measurements of soil physicochemical properties (e.g., bulk density, SOC, TN), vegetation attributes (e.g., canopy size, biomass, understory diversity), and soil hydrological indicators (e.g., soil moisture, infiltration rates, saturated hydraulic conductivity, water-holding capacity) across four forest types: secondary forest, Pinus tabuliformis, Platycladus orientalis, and Robinia pseudoacacia. These data were used to evaluate the differences in water-holding capacity and hydrological function under different vegetation restoration strategies. The dataset supports quantitative analysis including statistical tests, correlation analysis, and structural equation modeling (SEM) performed in the main article.