4-year cover cropping field experiment
In a four-year field experiment, cover crops were included in a full factorial design with three monocultures (Vicia sativa, Raphanus sativus and Avena strigosa) and all possible combinations of 2-species - and 3-species mixtures. The agricultural field was conventional with common main crop rotation (wheat before the start of the experiment and maize, potato and barley during the years of the experiment). Over the years we measured several parameters including greenhouse gas fluxes, microbial activity, soil nutrients, microbial biomass (qPCR) and diversity (with Illumina Miseq).  Details on the sequencing data of the soil samples: measured both in the first and fourth year of the experiment in August (at cover crop sowing time), November (12 weeks after cover crop sowing), February/March (before cover crop incorporation) and March/April (2 weeks after cover crop incorporation).   Dates year 1: 8/16/2016 (sample 1-40), 11/22/2016 (sample 41-80), 3/13/2017 (sample 81-120), 4/4/2017 (sample 121-160) Dates year 4: 8/19/2019 (sample 1-40), 11/11/2019 (sample 41-80), 2/17/2020 (sample 81-120), 3/16/2020 (sample 121-160)  Treatment codes of year 1: "gene"_"sample number"_"plot number"+"treatment"_"numbers" in which treatment codes represent cover crop species added: Fal = fallow, V = V. sativa, R = R. sativus, A = A. strigosa and combinations of V, R and A are the representative 2 and 3 species mixtures Treatment codes of year 4: "sample code"_"plot number"+"treatment"_"time"_"gene" in which treatment codes represent cover crop species added: Fal = fallow, V = V. sativa, R = R. sativus, A = A. strigosa and combinations of V, R and A are the representative 2 and 3 species mixtures