Data for the article: Coupling of leaf elemental traits with root fungal community composition reveals a plant resource acquisition strategy in a desert ecosystem

Purpose: Plant-associated microbes enhance nutrient access and stress tolerance of the host species, and therefore, are crucial for plant traits and resource strategies. However, the links between aboveground plant traits and belowground microbes related to plant resource strategies under stressful conditions remain poorly understood.
Methods: We tested the relationships between leaf traits linked to water (carbon isotopic composition, δ13C) and nutrient use (elemental concentrations and stoichiometry) with microbial compositions in roots and rhizospheres of two dominant species (Artemisia ordosica and Leymus secalinus) in the Mu Us Desert, northern China.
Results: L. secalinus exhibited higher Mg and Mn concentrations, N:P ratios, stoichiometric flexibility, and root fungi:bacteria ratios, but lower foliar K and Ca concentrations and δ13C values than A. ordosica. The leaf N:P of L. secalinus increased with the root fungi:bacteria ratios, whereas the leaf N:P of A. ordosica decreased wi...