DOI: 10.5061/dryad.3ffbg79z4
title: Data from: Warming-induced effects on microbial communities and nitrogen cycling capacity in tundra litter

description: Climate warming is changing tundra vegetation in the Arctic, with
 implications for plant litter properties. To address potential
 warming effects, we characterized the responses of bacterial and fungal
 communities and their genetically encoded capacity for inorganic
 nitrogen-transformations in the litter layer, as well as 15N natural
 abundance in the underlying soil layer as an integrated measure of
 nitrogen processes in the soil, in 16 long-term alpine and Arctic tundra
 warming experiments distributed across 12 circumpolar locations. While
 local conditions primarily shaped microbial communities, warming
 indirectly affected microbial nitrogen-cycling potentials through changes
 in herb dominance and litter mass, resulting in enhanced links between
 litter nitrogen cycling potentials and δ¹⁵N in the underlying soil. Our
 results suggest that warming-driven vegetation changes may intensify
 nitrogen-cycling with possible positive feedback on plant growth and
 ecosystem respiration across the tundra biome. The data includes 1) Sample
 metadata, including site information, and litter sample measurements of
 abiotic properties, abundance of nitrogen cycling genes, and abundance and
 composition of bacterial and fungal communities (Data Table 1, including
 "README"), 2) and Plant community data in each sampled plot or
 OTC at the sites (Data Table 2, including "README").
 The 16S rRNA gene and ITS2 sequences of prokaryotic and fungal
 communities, respectively, are deposited at the NCBI database under the
 BioProject PRJNA760312 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/).
description: # Data from: Warming-induced effects on microbial communities and nitrogen
 cycling capacity in tundra litter Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.3ffbg79z4](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3ffbg79z4) ##
 Description of the data and file structure #### File 1: Data_Table_1.xlsx
 **Description:** The data includes site information and litter and soil
 sample data, including microbiome data as specified in the list of
 variables below. The data file has seven tabs, with the first being a
 README describing the content of each tab, and all the column labels and
 units. The following tabs include sample metadata, quantification of genes
 in litter samples, the bacterial OTU table, the bacterial taxonomy, the
 fungal OTU table and the the fungal taxonomy. NA=not available due to
 missing data ##### Variables * Sample location (latitude, longitude,
 elevation, country), tab "Sample metadata" * sample number, site
 name, plot name, sampling date, tab "Sample metadata" * site
 description, tab "Sample_metadata" * climatic zone, tab
 "Sample_metadata" - litter properties (dry weight, C content, N
 contentC:N ratio, delta 15N, pH (H~2~O)), tab "Sample_metadata"
 - soil properties (soil delta 15N), tab "Sample_metadata" *
 abundance of 16S rRNA genes and fungal ITS2, tab
 "Quantifications" * abundance of N-cycling genes (amoA, nrfA,
 nifH, nirK, nirS) in litter, tab "Quantifications" * bacterial
 OTU table, tab "bacterial_OTU_table" * bacterial OTU taxonomy,
 tab "bacterial_OTU_taxonomy" * fungal OTU table, tab
 "fungal_OTU_table" * fungal OTU taxonomy, tab
 "fungal_OTU_taxonomy" 
 
 #### File 2: Data_Table_2.xlsx **Description:** Plant community data at
 each site, including abundance of plant species and functional groups and
 inferred litter quality, as specified in the list of variables below. The
 data file has four tabs, with the first being a README describing the
 content of each tab, explanations of the methodology, the column labels
 and units. The following tabs include plant species data, plant functional
 groups and a plant species list with inferred litter quality. Empty cells
 in the plant species inventory = plant species not present. #####
 Variables * Plant species, inventory of plant species in each control
 plot/OTC, tab "plant_species_data" * Plant functional groups
 (growth forms), tab "plant_functional \_groups" * Plant species
 list and corresponding litter quality (categorical data (high/low)), tab
 "plant_species_list" **In addition to the data files, sequence
 data is available at NCBI:** Raw 16S rRNA gene and ITS2 sequences of
 prokaryotic and fungal communities, respectively, in litter samples were
 deposited at the NCBI database under the BioProject PRJNA760312
 ([https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/)).