Water withdrawals for human use can alter soil moisture conditions in wetlands, with potential effects on nitrogen cycling processes. Wetlands in the New Jersey Pinelands are maintained by a groundwater aquifer, and thus may be sensitive to such changes. A 30-week microlysimeter laboratory incubation was conducted on soils from four stands (an upland pine stand, a pine wetland, a pine-hardwood wetland, and a cedar swamp). Replicate microcosms of mineral soils (pine-upland, pine-wetland and pine-hardwood) and organic soils (cedar swamp) were maintained at three moisture levels (saturated, 60% and 30% water-holding capacity). Surprisingly, only the organic soil differed significantly in N cycling at different moisture levels. Net mineralization and nitrification rates increased with decreasing moisture, and the soil accumulated more ammonium and nitrate. Mineral soils from the pine-upland and pine-hardwood wetland had similar net mineralization rates (409±30 and 403±6 mg N m-3 DM day-1, respectively), which were significantly higher than the rates in the organic soil (316±134 mg N m-3 DM day-1) and the mineral soil from the pine wetland (226±28 mg N m-3 DM day-1). Net nitrification rates were highest in the organic soils held at 30% and 60% water-holding capacity (83 and 114 mg N m-3 DM day-1, respectively) compared with the mineral soils. But the saturate organic soil had a very low net nitrification rate (9 mg N m-3 DM day-1), which is similar to all mineral soils with net nitrification rates below 10 mg N m-3 DM day-1 regardless of moisture levels. Principle component analysis showed a similar pattern for both N fractions and N cycling processes. The results suggest that changes in soil moisture in cedar swamps due to water withdrawals could result in elevated production of nitrate and nitrate leaching to surface waters.