Objective To clarify the relationship between soil microorganisms and soil erodibility under the background of vegetation restoration, and to provide a scientific basis for evaluating soil and water conservation benefits and restoring degraded lands. Methods Study sites with different vegetation restoration years (12 a, 15 a, 21 a, 24 a, 43 a) were selected in Changting County, Fujian Province, China, with severely eroded and degraded land (0 a) as the control. The potential effects of soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen contents and microbial community structure on soil erodibility were analyzed. Results Compared with the control plot, the soil erodibility factor (K value) gradually decreased with increasing restoration duration, and the K value decreased by 29.6% after 43 years of vegetation restoration. Soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen contents increased by 11.35 and 3.48 times, respectively. Biomass of Gram-positive bacteria, Gram-negative bacteria, fungi, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and actinomycetes were significantly different from those of severely degraded land (p<0.05), and increased by 30.87, 100.36, 13.96, 618.84, and 84.5 times, respectively, compared with the control plot. Correlation analysis showed that soil erodibility was extremely significantly negatively correlated with soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen contents and microbial community structure (p<0.001). Redundancy analysis indicated that soil microbial indicators accounted for 92.02% of the cumulative explanatory power of soil erodibility. Conclusion Improvements in soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen contents and soil microbial community structure reduced the K value, with the lowest K value observed after 43 years of vegetation restoration, and strengthened soil resistance to erosion.
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