Asymmetric responses of abundance and diversity of N-cycling genes to altered precipitation in arid grasslands

Precipitation changes exert a fundamental effect on the nitrogen (N) cycle in water-limited grasslands. Soil microbes are essential drivers of N cycle, and the rates and their stabilities of interrelated N-cycling processes are reflected by the abundance and diversity of N-cycling genes. Yet, little is known about how altered precipitation affects the genes involved in the entire N-cycling pathways.
By combining a 6-year precipitation manipulation experiment (-30%, ambient, +30%, +50%) with metagenomic sequencing, we investigated the responses of N-cycling gene abundance and diversity to altered precipitation at two soil depths (0-10 and 30-50 cm).
We found that increased precipitation enhanced the abundance of numerous key genes, leading to an acceleration of N turnover, but decreased the diversity of ammonium assimilation genes. Decreased precipitation did not reduce abundance or diversity of N-cycling genes. Most N-cycling genes showed generally consistent responses to altered precip..., , , \# Title of Dataset: Asymmetric responses of abundance and diversity of N\-cycling genes to altered precipitation in arid grasslands

Soil properties, plant properties and gross N transformation rates in a 6-year precipitation manipulation experiment.

\# Description of the data and file structure

DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: data.csv

1. Number of variables: 10
2. Number of cases/rows: 32
3. Variable List:
* Treat: the four precipitation treatments, including -30% (ambient precipitation decreased by 30%), ambient (ambient precipitation), 30% (ambient precipitation increased by 30%) and 50% (ambient precipitation increased by 50%)
* Depth: the two soil depth, including the depth of 0-10 cm (topsoil) and 30-50 cm (subsoil)
* VWC: soil volumetric water content (%)
* SOC: soil organic carbon (g/kg)
* NH4+-N: soil ammonium nitrogen (mg/kg)
* NO3--N: soil nitrate nitrogen (mg/kg)
* AGB: aboveground plant biomass (g)
* BGB: the percentage of root area in per...