Assessing phyllosphere, rainfall and throughfall microbial composition and diversity in a Mediterranean holm-oak forest.

Forest canopies represent an important habitat (the phyllosphere) for microbial communities. Yet we still know little about their composition and whether or not they play a role in nutrient cycling, particularly nitrogen. In this study we characterized precipitation (RF), throughfall (TF) and phyllosphere microbial communities in a Mediterranean holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) forest in Spain and elucidate the occurrence of canopy nitrification by bacteria and/or archaea during the transition from hot dry summer to cool wet winter. Here we share data from high-throughput sequencing analyses (16S rRNA gene amplicons), which we used to assess differences in microbial communities among RF, TF and phyllosphere. These data contribute to achieving a better understanding on the role of i) airborne microbes in affecting phyllosphere microbial communities, and ii) tree canopies as source of microbial cells reaching the soil via TF.