Soil 16S DNA sequence data and corresponding soil property and wheat yield data from a 72-plot field experiment involving pulses and wheat crops grown in rotations in the semiarid prairie

The soil bacteria diversity and corresponding environmental data made available here are from a 72-field plot experiment testing the effect of pulse frequency in nine wheat-based rotation systems, in the semiarid prairie. The data include sequences of the V6–V8 regions of bacterial 16S rDNA from soil and root extracts, generated using Roche GS FLX Titanium technology, and associated environmental data, specifically levels of soil organic carbon, total carbon, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, pH, electrical conductivity, and extractible sulfate sulfur, copper, iron, manganese, zinc, potassium, nitrate nitrogen, phosphate phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium in the 0–15 cm soil layer, and mineral nitrogen and phosphate in the 0–120 cm soil layer. The grain yield of wheat in the last (4th) phase of the crop rotation systems is also given. The data can be used in meta-analyses of the effect of pea, lentil and chickpea in wheat-based cropping systems on soil bacterial diversity or for monitoring the evolution of soil bacteria communities in cultivated prairie soils in the context of climate change. Samples were collected between 2012 and 2014.