Comprehensive grain size database of sediments of different types of dunes in Gurbantunggut Desert

The Gurbantunggut Desert, located in the Junggar Basin of Central Asia, is China’s second-largest desert and the only mid-latitude desert dominated by extensive fixed and semi-fixed dunes. Despite its distinctive dendritic, honeycomb, and complex dune morphologies, comprehensive sedimentological datasets spanning multiple dune types and spatial positions remain scarce. Here we present a large-scale, systematic dataset of sediment grain-size distributions collected from 67 sampling zones and 424 sites, totaling 1,859 samples across diverse geomorphological units in the Gurbantunggut Desert. Surface and profile samples were collected following standardized protocols and, after rigorous pretreatment, were analyzed using a Mastersizer 2000 laser-diffraction particle-size analyzer. The dataset captures spatial variations in sediment composition among dune types, slope positions, and profiles, reflecting interactions among wind dynamics, sediment supply, and vegetation cover. This open-access dataset provides essential baseline information for studies of dune morphodynamics, aeolian sediment transport, and ecological responses in arid environments, thereby facilitating future research on source-to-sink dynamics, climate-change impacts, and desertification monitoring.