DOI: 10.5061/dryad.5hqbzkhfj
title: Higher phosphorus and water use efficiencies and leaf stoichiometry contribute to legume success in drylands

description: Legumes are essential plants in dryland ecosystems worldwide because they
 increase nitrogen availability, so their understanding is vital for
 improving knowledge and modeling in the face of climate change. This work
 studies the differences in resource use efficiency and their relationship
 with photosynthetic, photochemical, bioelemental, and stoichiometric
 traits of coexistent legumes and non-legumes in a Sonoran Desert
 ecosystem. We found that legumes had higher photosynthetic rates,
 intrinsic and seasonal water use efficiency (WUE), phosphorus use
 efficiency (PPUE), and higher light utilization mediated by chlorophyll
 content and active reaction centers, which may increase their
 photoprotection. Legumes can increase their WUE and PPUE with no changes
 in nitrogen use efficiency (PNUE). Consequently, observed trait
 relationships between studied traits in these legumes have significant
 differences with the non-legume species in the study. Stoichiometry is
 helpful, in some cases, as an indicator of nutrient use efficiency and
 enables functional group differentiation. Our results strongly relate
 legumes' higher resource use efficiency with their success in dryland
 ecosystems.
description: Field measurements and sampling were conducted on the most
 dominant shrub and tree species, three leguminous and five non-leguminous,
 which contributed to about 80% of the plant community's dominance.
 Physiological measurements were obtained from five (occasionally four)
 leaves from previously marked healthy adult individuals of each species
 within a plot of around 1000 m<sup>2</sup>. All measurements
 were performed after the onset of the North American Monsoon summer rains
 (between July and October) in 2021 and no official permits were required
 to perform the field work.
description: # Higher phosphorus and water use efficiencies and leaf stoichiometry
 contribute to legume success in drylands.
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5hqbzkhfj](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5hqbzkhfj) ## Description of the data and file structure **Description of the data and file structure** The study was conducted at the El Churi ranch in La Colorada, Sonora (28°41’53.6” Lat N and -110°32’21” Long W), in Northwestern Mexico. The site has an average annual rainfall (P) of 348 mm, an annual temperature of 20.7 °C (Castellanos et al., 2022), and potential evapotranspiration (ET) of 2,360 mm. The climate is semiarid, with aridity indexes of 0.15 (P/ET) and 12.84 (De Martonne). Field measurements and sampling were conducted on the most dominant shrub and tree species, three leguminous and five non-leguminous, which contributed to about 80% of the plant community's dominance. Physiological measurements were obtained from five (occasionally four) leaves from previously marked healthy adult individuals of each species within a plot of around 1000 m2. All measurements were performed after the onset of the North American Monsoon summer rains (between July and October) in 2021 and no official permits were required to perform the field work. ### Files and variables #### Table\_S01.xlsx (Dryad) Stepwise regressions of resource use efficiencies with studied traits in legumes and non-legumes. Two other supplementary documents are provided in the Zenodo link under Related Works. ## Code/software n/a ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * n/a Data was derived from the following sources: * own generated