Hydraulic traits are coordinated but decoupled from carbon traits in herbaceous species

Plant hydraulic traits primarily define the water regulation strategy, thus enabling better understanding of vegetation structure, function and dynamics under varying hydro-environments. Despite being intensively documented in woody species, variation and correlation of hydraulic traits across herbaceous species remain largely understudied.
Here, we report on the leaf hydraulics of nine herbs with contrasting growth forms (graminoid and forb). Traits quantifying drought resistance, including leaf water potential thresholds triggering xylem embolism (Px), stomatal closure (Pgs) or leaf turgor loss point (Ptlp), and minimum conductance (gmin), together with leaf gas exchange, morphological traits and biomass allocation, were measured on pot grown plants. In addition, an in situ dry-down was imposed on four representative species, with leaf gas exchange, water potential and level of xylem embolism, being continuously monitored during dehydration to determine the dynamics of stomatal closur..., Plant materials and growth condition 
Nine herbaceous species representing two growth forms were chosen for the current study (Table 1). Species selected here are representative of understory herbaceous community within forest ecosystems across north China plain, and most species are cosmopolite, with the exception of Crepidiastrum denticulatum, Senna tora, and Elymus dahuricus, which occur sporadically worldwide, according to the occurrence record of Global Biodiversity Information Facility (www.gbif.org). All species are common weeds that have never been artificially selected. The distributional range of these species largely overlaps, yet there is considerable variation in the mean annual precipitation (MAP, mm) and mean annual temperature (MAT, oC) of the species climatic envelopes (i.e. bioclimate niche), with the MAP ranging from 434 to 1618 mm and the MAT ranging from 5.5 to 23.9 oC.
Seeds of the selected species were purchased from a commercial supplier that collects seeds ..., , # Data from: Hydraulic traits are coordinated but decoupled from carbon traits in herbaceous species

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.wh70rxx00](10.5061/dryad.wh70rxx00)

## Description of the data and file structure

**Decoupling of hydraulic and carbon traits in herbs**

The “Huang_et_al_2025_Data” zip file contains two folders: “Raw_data” and “Integrated_data.” The “Raw_data” folder includes eight files, which were used for fitting curves and conducting part of the statistical analysis (such as ANOVA). Specifically, the “ABR” file contains data on the ratio of aboveground to belowground biomass, the “SLA” file contains specific leaf area data, the “Epidermal_conductance” file contains leaf minimum conductance data, the “gs_wp_experimental_1” file contains gas exchange traits data measured in experiment one, the “gs_wp_experimental_2” file contains gas exchange traits data measured in experiment two, the “PV” file contains turgor loss point data and water potential at full turgor data cal...,