Data used in Shrub expansion modulates belowground impacts of changing snow conditions in alpine grasslands study

We established two complementary field experiments. The first experiment used a natural gradient in snowmelt timing combined with a shrub manipulation treatment across three alpine valleys in the Austrian Alps to test how earlier snowmelt and shrub expansion affect soil microbial communities, their functioning, and nutrient pools at the landscape scape. For the second experiment, we implemented at one of the sites a multi-year snow manipulation treatment combined with a shrub manipulation treatment. This allowed us to experimentally test how reduced winter snow cover and shrub expansion individually and interactively affect soil microbial communities, their functioning, and nutrient pools and fluxes, including plant N-uptake immediately after snowmelt. These datasets were generated from these experiments.