The synergy between vegetation and soil is a fundamental driver of ecosystem restoration, yet the short-term impacts of soil disturbance on soil microbes and the relations between vegetation and soil during vegetation recovery remain unclear. We compared the responses of plants, soil physicochemical properties, and microbial communities after seven years of application of soil disturbance techniques (harrowing, HA; shallow ploughing, SP; and natural recovery, NR, the control) in a degraded Leymus chinensis steppe. Our results showed that bacterial community was more stable and did not change significantly under soil disturbance, but the fungal community was more sensitive to soil disturbance and was closely related to soil water content, bulk density, and relative aboveground biomass of dominant plant species. The results of this study suggest that soil disturbance techniques directly (mainly via changes in soil physical properties) and indirectly (mainly via changes in plant community composition) affected soil fungal community composition. Data show that SP largely facilitated the recovery of L. chinensis but decreased plant richness and diversity, resulted in a slower rate of soil microbial and soil quality restoration relative to the other treatments. It is also clear that HA and NR exerted positive effects on the recovery of the plant and soil microbial communities across degraded Leymus chinensis steppe over short timescales. Our results provide scientific guidance for more effective management of degraded grassland, and suggest that above- and belowground communities should be considered to be precise indicators of grassland ecosystem restoration. The long-term effects of soil disturbance techniques on soil microbial communities require further study.

植被与土壤的协同作用是生态系统恢复的根本驱动力，但土壤扰动对土壤微生物的短期影响以及植被恢复过程中植被与土壤的关系尚不清楚。我们比较了在退化的羊草中应用土壤干扰技术（耙，HA；浅耕，SP；自然恢复，NR，对照）七年后植物、土壤理化特性和微生物群落的反应草原。我们的研究结果表明，细菌群落在土壤扰动下更稳定，变化不大，但真菌群落对土壤扰动更敏感，与土壤含水量、容重和优势植物的相对地上生物量密切相关。本研究的结果表明，土壤干扰技术直接（主要通过土壤物理特性的变化）和间接（主要通过植物群落组成的变化）影响土壤真菌群落组成。数据显示SP在很大程度上促进了L. chinensis的恢复但与其他处理相比，植物丰富度和多样性降低，导致土壤微生物和土壤质量恢复速度较慢。同样清楚的是，HA 和 NR在短时间内对退化的羊草草原的植物和土壤微生物群落的恢复产生了积极影响。我们的研究结果为更有效地管理退化草地提供了科学指导，并建议应将地上和地下群落视为草地生态系统恢复的精确指标。土壤扰动技术对土壤微生物群落的长期影响需要进一步研究。