This dataset contains litter carbon content, nitrogen content, and associated chemistry data from a litter decomposition experiment at the Jornada Basin LTER in 2010 to 2012. To assess the role of soil-litter mixing (SLM) in aridland litter decomposition, litterbags were deployed in the Chihuahuan Desert and interrelationships between vegetation structure, SLM, and rates of decomposition were quantified. To assess the role of vegetation structure, litterbags were deployed in contrasting vegetation microsites, including grass, shrub, and bare ground microsites. This dataset contains litter chemistry data from the experiment including percent carbon, percent nitrogen, ash corrections, and the carbon to nitrogen ratio of litter in recovered bags. This study is complete.