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Microbial activity in drylands is mediated by the magnitude and frequency of growing season rain events that will shift as climate change progresses. Nitrogen is often co-limiting with water availability to dryland plants. This study investigated how microbes important to the nitrogen (N) cycle and soil N availability varied temporally and spatially in the context of a long-term rainfall variability experiment in the northern Chihuahuan Desert. Specifically, biological soil crust (biocrust) chlorophyll content, fungal abundance, and inorganic N were measured in soils adjacent to individuals of the grassland foundation species, Bouteloua eriopoda, and in the unvegetated interspace at multiple time points associated with experimental monsoon rainfall treatments. Treatments included 12 small weekly (5 mm) or 3 large monthly (20 mm) rain events, which had been applied during the summer monsoon for nine years prior to this …