A dataset of quadrat sampling of 455 herb quadrats in Huangshui River Basin, Qinghai Province

Abstract

As a key tributary of the upper Yellow River, originating from Haiyan County, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Haibei, Qinghai Province, Huangshui River flows through Xining City and Haidong City in Qinghai Province, China. Obtaining the basic data of plant communities in Huangshui River Basin is critical to assessing the ecosystem functions and services of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and studying its feedback effect on global environmental changes. In this paper, we collated the data from two field surveys of herb communities conducted in the summers of 2021 and 2022 in Huangshui River Basin in Xining City, Haidong City and Haiyan County of Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, with a total of 455 quadrats comprising 4,113 records and 277 plant species (55 families and 172 genera). We then calculated the diversity indexes (i.e. species richness, Shannon-Wiener index, Pielou index, and Simpson index) of plant communities. The results can serve as a guide for the future research on plant communities and ecosystems, and biodiversity management in Huangshui River Basin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.