Marsh soil nitrification rates, microbial communities, and explanatory variables collected from marshes in Terrebonne Bay, western Barataria Bay, and eastern Barataria Bay, Louisiana from July 2015 to July 2016

This dataset contains values for potential rates of nitrification, abundances of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA), denitrifying bacteria (nirS), methane-oxidizing bacteria (MOB) and soil properties collected from 12 marshes in Terrebonne Bay (TB), western Barataria Bay (WB), and eastern Barataria Bay (EB), Louisiana during July sampling campaigns in 2015 and 2016. In each region, we sampled two pairs of oiled and unoiled marshes. At each site, we collected 5-cm deep soil cores at 4 locations (5, 10, 15, and 20m from the marsh edge). Each sample was analyzed for potential nitrification rates with AOA, AOB, nirS, and MOB abundances also quantified in July of each year. Additionally, we measured a series of basic site characterizations: soil properties, soil extractable nutrients, porewater, overlying water and adjacent bay water depth, temperature, salinity, specific conductance and nutrients, when available.