Research data of the article entitled "Recruitment of oligotrophic bacteria and stimulation of soil ammonium production co-alleviate microbial nitrogen limitation of shrublands in the Mu Us Desert"

In the present study, we anticipated that 1) microbial enzyme activities and microbial N limitation vary across shrublands, especially in the rhizosphere;2) the prevalence of oligotrophic bacteria and fungi alleviate microbial N limitation; 3) higher soil GMR and biological N fixation rates reduce microbial N limitation, while great GNR increase microbial N limitation. To test these hypotheses, we investigated three typical shrublands in the Mu Us Desert (dominated by Artemisia ordosica, Salix psammophila and Caragana korshinskii, respectively), to delineate their patterns of microbial resource utilization and underlying microbial mechanism. The microbial metabolic limitation in the rhizosphere and bulk soil, along with the relative abundances of oligotrophs and copiotrophs, GMR, GNR, and biological N fixation rates (nitrogenase activity) were investigated using an integrated approach combining vector model of EES and 15N isotope tracing.