A dataset of soil nitrogen-cycling functional genes abundance and microbial community properties in typical temperate and subtropical forests under nitrogen and phosphorus additions

The datasets of the abundance of nitrogen-cycling functional genes and the properties of nitrogen-cycling microbial communities were constructed based on the field experimental setup of nitrogen and phosphorus additions in forests of Chinese Ecosystem Research Network (CERN). We collected top-soils from typical forests in eastern China, including a temperate forest (Changbai Mountain) and two subtropical forests (Qianyanzhou and Dinghu Mountain) with nitrogen and/or phosphorus additions, and also soils along vertical profiles in plots without nutrient additions. We measured and collected results of the abundances of functional genes involved in nitrogen-cycling, diversities and community structures of nitrogen-cycling microbes, potential activities of nitrogen-cycling microbial communities and soil physiochemical properties. These datasets consist of 2475 results involved in the properties of nitrogen-cycling microbes and 684 results involved in the soil physiochemical properties. It includes 4 microbial processes, namely, nitrogen fixation, organic nitrogen mineralization, nitrification and denitrification, and 9 functional genes involved in these processes, namely, ammonia oxidizing archaea amoA, ammonia oxidizing bacteria amoA, nirK, nirS, nosZ, qnorB, narG, nir, nifH and chiA. These datasets also include soil physiochemical properties, namely soil pH, moisture content, the concentrations of organic carbon, NH4+, NO3−, available phosphorus, total nitrogen, total carbon, total phosphorus and dissolved organic carbon, N2O emission and net nitrification rate.