tAnthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition is a serious threat to biodiversity and the functioning of manyecosystems, particularly so in N-limited systems, such as many forests. Here we evaluate the associationsbetween soil nitrate and changes in plant community structure and soil biota along nitrate gradientsfrom croplands into closed forests. Specifically, we studied the composition of the understory plant andearthworm communities as well as soil microbial properties in two deciduous forests (Echinger Lohe (EL)and Wippenhauser Forst (WF)) near Munich, Germany, which directly border on fertilized agriculturalfields. Environmental variables, like photosynthetically active radiation, distance to the edge and soil pHwere also determined and used as co-variates. In both forests we found a decrease in understory plantcoverage with increasing soil nitrate concentrations. Moreover, earthworm biomass increased with soilnitrate concentration, but this increase was more pronounced in EL than in WF. Soil microbial growth afteraddition of a nitrogen source increased significantly with soil nitrate concentrations in WF, indicatingchanges in the composition of the soil microbial community, although there was no significant effect inEL. In addition, we found changes in earthworm community composition along the soil nitrate gradientin WF. Taken together, the composition and functioning of forest soil communities and understory plantcover changed significantly along soil nitrate gradients leading away from fertilized agricultural fields.Inconsistent patterns between the two forests however suggest that predicting the consequences of Ndeposition may be complicated due to context-dependent responses of soil organisms.