Jasper Ridge Global Change Experiment (JRGCE)

Despite extensive efforts in examining below- and above-ground ecosystems, it remains untackled to analyze a broad range of microbial functional groups and linking them to soil C and N dynamics. This restricts our understanding of the effect of long-term N amendment on soil microbial communities and soil functioning in natural terrestrial ecosystems, such as grasslands. To address it, here we report an experimental study with 14 years of N amendment in a Californian annual grassland located near Stanford CA, USA (Jasper Ridge Global Change Experiment, JRGCE). Plots were amended with 7 g-N m-2 Ca(NO3)2 per year since 1998, making it one of the longest N amendment experiments in natural grasslands.The experiment site located in California, USA, which has been operated on an annual grassland under a Mediterranean-type climate at the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve (37°24'N, 122°13'W) since October 1998. Soil samples were collected in April 2012, i.e. 14 years after the experiment began.