This set of data describes resilience in microbial communities in samples taken at the Sourhope experimental site in 2001 by the Scottish Crop Research Institute, the University of Aberdeen and Cranfield University. Data were collected during a project funded under the NERC Soil Biodiversity Programme. The NERC Soil Biodiversity Thematic Programme was established in 1999 and was centred upon the intensive study of a large field experiment located at the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute (now the James Hutton Institute) farm at Sourhope in the Scottish Borders (Grid reference: NT8545019630). During the experiment, the site was monitored to assess changes in above-ground biomass production (productivity), species composition and relative abundance (diversity). Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/7af2f732-f8a5-4a87-bcc0-dae54323efd0
