Divergent nutrient strategies mediate plant diversity responses to key functional group loss in desert steppes

All raw and processed data generated from the three-year field experiment, including plant–soil stoichiometric characteristics, soil carbon storage, and biomass data under LG, LL, LGL, and CK treatments, are deposited in the public repository. The released data fully support the conclusions about how functional group removal disrupts plant–soil coupling and exacerbates soil carbon loss in desert grasslands and are freely available for academic reuse.