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This data package contains vegetative cover data of plots that have had various plant functional groups or species experimentally removed at the Jornada Basin. This data was collected in an effort to distinguish the differential effects of plant community biomass, plant community functional groups, and biodiversity within functional groups to plant community response. To make these distinctions, treatments were established by the selective removal of plant species or of all species of a functional group within a plot. There are eight treatments: a control (C, no removals); four functional group removal treatments (PG, perennial grass removed; S, shrubs removed; SSh, subshrubs removed; Succ, succulents removed), and three treatments where richness within a functional group was manipulated. The latter include the simplified treatment (Simp, where only the single most abundant species of each growth form remains, while all other species of those growth forms are removed), the reduced‐Larrea treatment (rL, where the dominant of each growth form is removed, and minority components remain), and a second form of the reduced treatment (rP, where Prosopis rather than Larrea is removed as the shrub dominant).Following treatments, vegetative data was collected by sampling each plot along three transects twice a year (Spring and Fall) for 5 years from 1997-2002 (no data was collected in 1998). This data set consists of the date of collection, plot number, treatment type, transect number, quadrat number, species codes, two diameters, height, condition, count, record IDs, and error codes. Data collection was completed in 2002.