The authors analyzed a total of 3,002,411 quality-filtered bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences in the 48 technical replicates across 8 revegetation chronosequence sites, consisting of 3,316 OTUs. Nine bacterial phyla dominated this dataset, including Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Firmicutes, Gemmatimonadetes, Planctomycetes, Proteobacteria and Verrucomicrobia.The OTU data provide information on bacterial flux at this restoration site through a stagger of years and can be used accordingly.

The dataset includes two main components: (1) Tree survey - data on the species, diameter and height of individual trees, along with a count of seedlings and saplings; and (2) Coarse woody debris - data on the size and decay class of downed coarse woody debris encountered in the plots.