Title: The main driver of soil organic carbon differs greatly between topsoil and subsoil in a grazing steppe Authors: Yantao Wu1, Zhiwei Guo1, Zhiyong Li1*, Maowei Liang2, Yongkang Tang3, Jinghui Zhang1, Bailing Miao4, Lixin Wang1, Cuizhu Liang1 Authors’ affiliations: 1. Key Laboratory of Ecology and Resource Use of the Mongolian Plateau, Ministry of Education of China; Collaborative Innovation Center for Grassland Ecological Security, Ministry of Education of China; School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010021, China. 2. Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Science, and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; 3. Alxa League Meteorological Bureau, Bayanhot 750300, China 4. Inner Mongolia Meteorological Institute, Hohhot 010051, China Corresponding author: *Zhiyong Li, email: zylee007@imu.edu.cn. This data contains all the analysis data of this manuscript: variables Information duration grazing years GI NG: no grazing (0 sheep/ha) LG: light graizng (2 sheep/ha) MG: miedum grazing (4 sheep/ha) HG: heavy grazing (8 sheep/ha) layers Top: 0-10cm Mid: 10-30cm Sub: 30-50cm shoot_biomass Aboveground biomass: g/m2 root_biomass Blowground biomass: g/m2 RS Root shoot ratio LFOC LFOC: light fraction organic carbon g/kg HFOC HFOC:heavy fraction organic carbon g/kg SOC Soil organic carbon g/kg SOC_lability The SOC lability is defined as the ratio of labile (LFOC) to nonlabile (HFOC): SOC_lability = LFOC/HFOC TN Soil total nitrogen g/kg MAP annual precipitation MAT mean annual temperature