The spatial variation and drivers of soil microbial metabolism limitations in an alpine-gorge region on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau
Description
This dataset supports the manuscript entitled "The spatial variation and drivers of soil microbial metabolism limitations in an alpine-gorge region on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau" submitted to Catena. It comprises field measurements and laboratory analyses collected from an alpine-gorge region on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, including soil extracellular enzyme activities (e.g., β-1,4-glucosidase, β-1,4-N-acetylglucosaminidase, leucine aminopeptidase, and phosphatase), ecoenzymatic stoichiometric ratios, and microbial metabolic limitation indicators (carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus limitations) derived from vector analysis. Environmental covariates such as elevation, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), slope, and aspect are also included. Soil ecoenzymatic stoichiometry and vector analysis were employed to quantify microbial metabolic limitations, while multiple spatial modeling approaches—ordinary kriging, multiple linear regression, random forest, and geographically weighted regression (GWR)—were applied to identify key drivers and to map the spatial distribution of microbial metabolic limitations. This dataset is valuable for researchers studying microbial-mediated biogeochemical cycles, ecoenzymatic stoichiometry, and spatial modeling in topographically complex mountain ecosystems, and can serve as a reference for comparative studies across different alpine regions.