Linkage between soil nutrient and microbial characteristic in an opencast mine, China.

Interaction between soil nutrients and microorganisms makes great contributions to soil quality in mining spoils of fragile ecological environment. While this was not very clear in opencast mine area located in western China. Based on an emerging tool of high-throughput sequencing and a comprehensive analysis method, canonical correlation analysis (CCA), the relationship between microorganisms dominant species and soil nutrients in mined areas located in Loess Plateau of China was studied. The results showed that soil and microbes both developed a lot after reclamation. Mean concentration of soil organic matter (SOM) and total phosphorus (TP) were higher than background value of chestnut soil, while total nitrogen (TN) and total potassium (TK) were lower than that. Soil nutrients and microorganisms in research areas were strongly correlated with each other. SOM, TN, TP, available phosphorus (AP) of soil system and Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes of dominant bacterial species were closely related. Relevant efficient measures should be taken to store soil nutrients thus to activate bacterial performance for sustainable development.