Sod cutting is used as measure in heathlands affected by increased nitrogen deposition, but species recovery is often limited. This paper provides experimental evidence of barriers to successful restoration introduced by sod cutting: soil acidity and P-limitation, having important implications for managing ecosystems under high nitrogen load, and advocates a sound N emission reduction instead of N removal policy.The data files include:Soil_chemistry_data.txtTab delimited file with soil chemistry data used in the analyses.BLOCK: Denotes the block the plot is situated inYEAR: factorial; denotes year data was sampled in. 0= before treatments were applied, after sod cutting. 1= one season after application of treatments. 2= two seasons after application of treatments.Ca: Logical: indicates whether liming treatment was applied (YES) or not (NO).P: Logical: indicates whether phosphate treatment was applied (YES) or not (NO).Treatcode: combined treatment code of liming and phosphate treatment: P-Ca-: No P, no lime added; P-Ca+: No P added, lime added; P+Ca-: P added, no lime added; P+ Ca+: P added, lime added.Pols: Olsen extracted Phosphate (µmol/kg soil).pHZ: pH of the NaCl soil extractAlZ: Al concentration of the NaCl soil extractCaZ: Ca concentration of the NaCl soil extractKZ: K concentration of the NaCl soil extractMgZ: Mg concentration of the NaCl soil extractNO3Z: NO3 concentration of the NaCl soil extractNH4Z: NH4 concentration of the NaCl soil extractNO3W: NO3 concentration of the distilled water soil extractVegetation_sensus_data.txtTab delimited file with vegetation sensus data used in the analyses.Block: Denotes the block the plot is situated inTreat: combined treatment code of liming and phosphate treatment: P-Ca-: No P, no lime added; P-Ca+: No P added, lime added; P+Ca-: P added, no lime added; P+ Ca+: P added, lime added.P: Logical: indicates whether phosphate treatment was applied (YES) or not (NO).Ca: Logical: indicates whether liming treatment was applied (YES) or not (NO).YearMo: year and month the sensus was made.Year: factorial; denotes year data was sampled in. 2014= two seasons after application of treatments. 2015= three seasons after application of treatments.Code: full plot code identifierHerb_perc: percentage of herb (and shrub) cover.Mos_perc: percentage of moss cover.Open_perc: percentage of bare groundCoversum: summed cover of vegetation layersSR: total species number of vascular plants counted in plot.RGRmed: Species occurrence based mean RGR based on median species RGR values derived from the TRY database (Kattge et al. 2011), using data contributions from Fitter and Peat (1994), Fry, Power and Manning (2014), Kazakou, Vile, Shipley, Gallet and Garnier (2006), Shipley (1989), Shipley and Parent (1991), Shipley (2002) and Vile (2005).Viol_can: total species number of Violion caninae typical vascular plant species counted in the plot.Call_gen: total species number of Calluno-genistion typical vascular plant species counted in the plot.Atypical: total species number of non heathland typical vascular plant species counted in the plot.