The data comprises both compositional data and growth assay data from an experiment of wild bacterial communities in Wytham Woods, Oxford. The communities live in puddles of water in tree-holes formed by the roots of beech trees. We manipulated the pH of tree-holes during the experiment for comparison with control tree-holes that were unmanipulated. Compositional data comprises the frequency of different Amplicon Sequencing Variants and derived measures of species diversity for samples taken over time (up to 12 weeks from the start of the experiment). The growth assay data comprises measurements of growth rates of community samples and isolates back in the laboratory, when grown on beech tea media manipulated to have different pHs. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/9d64f2bd-2918-416f-b08c-3369edbc1b30