Characteristics and influencing factors of soil microbial functional diversity in Shushan urban forest, Southeast China

The study of soil microbial functional diversity and its influencing factors in urban forests can provide important insights into maintaining a healthy material cycle within these ecosystems. In this study, we selected three plantation forests, including Pinus massoniana Lamb (PM), Quercus acutissima Carruth (QA), Liquidambar formosana Hance (LF), and secondary deciduous broadleaved forest (DB). We studied the metabolic characteristics of soil microbial carbon sources in the four kinds of forest vegetation in the growing season and dormant season and the 0-10cm, 10-20cm, 20-30cm soil layer, three soil layers (0-10, 10-20, 20-30cm) using the Biolog-ECO microplate method. Our study suggested that soil microorganisms with PM showed the lowest metabolic activity. Soil microorganisms in the four forest vegetation had the lowest carbon source utilization capacity for monosaccharide/ glycoside/ polymercan, and the highest utilization capacity for amines. The Shanon-Wiener (H′) and Simpson (D) diversity indices of the four kinds of forest vegetation were significantly different from 0-10cm in the soil layer, and the H′ and D values of LF were higher than PM, QA and DB. Soil pH and total phosphorus (TP) are closely related to the microbial functional diversity and carbon source utilization of the four vegetation.