Long-term above- and belowground net primary production (NPP) measurements from a grassland-shrubland transition zone in the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico, USA

Drylands are key contributors to interannual variation in the terrestrial carbon sink, which has been attributed primarily to large-scale climatic anomalies that disproportionately affect net primary production (NPP) in these ecosystems. Current knowledge around the patterns and controls of NPP is based largely on measurements of aboveground NPP (ANPP), particularly in the context of altered precipitation regimes. Limited evidence suggests belowground NPP (BNPP), a major input to the terrestrial carbon pool, may respond differently than ANPP to precipitation, as well as other drivers of environmental change, such as nitrogen deposition and fire. This data package accompanies an associated manuscript in which we used sixteen years (2005-2020) of annual NPP measurements, derived from three ongoing long-term research sites, to investigate spatiotemporal responses of ANPP and BNPP to several environmental change drivers across a grassland-shrubland transition zone in the northern Chihuahuan Desert.