Soil fertility, enzyme activity, and microbial community structure diversity among different soil textures under different land use types in coastal saline soil

Purpose This investigation assessed the responses of soil fertility, enzyme activity, and microbial community diversity to soil texture and land use type. Materials and methods The tested soils included five soil textures (sandy loam, medium loam, heavy loam, light clay, and medium clay soils) with two land use types (uncultivated and paddy soils) in the coastal zone of Zhejiang Province, China. Results and discussion Soil texture had a significant effect on soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), organic carbon (OC), total nitrogen (TN), available nitrogen (AN), phosphorus (AP) and potassium (AK), catalase and protease activities, total phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs), bacterial and actinomycetes PLFAs, and microbial diversity (MD). The clay content was significantly positively correlated to soil EC, OC, TN, AN, AP, AK, catalase activity, total PLFAs, bacterial and actinomycetes PLFAs, and MD but significantly negatively associated with soil pH and protease activity. Land use type also had significantly influenced soil pH, EC, OC, TN, AN, AP, AK, catalase, protease and urease activities, total PLFAs, bacterial, actinomycetes, and fungal PLFAs, and MD. The paddy soil had higher OC, TN, AN, AP, catalase, protease and urease activities, total PLFAs, bacterial and actinomycetes PLFAs, and MD but lower soil pH, EC, and AK than the uncultivated soil. The interaction with soil texture and land use type had significantly affected soil pH, EC, OC, TN, AN, AP, AK, catalase and protease activities, total PLFAs, bacterial and actinomycetes PLFAs, and MD. Conclusions Soil texture and land use type could be considered important factors in improving soil fertility, enzyme activity, and microbial diversity in coastal saline soils.