In Australia, environmental plantings using native trees and shrubs have been established to restore agricultural landscapes affected by land degradation. We studied a chronosequence of environmental plantings established between 1993 and 2005, adjacent to pasture and remnant woodland at three study areas on contrasting soil types in New South Wales. Our aim was to assess the effects of environmental plantings on soil properties and microbial attributes and to determine if the recovery to the conditions found under extant remnant woodland were achievable. We examined total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), extractable phosphorus (P), soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), and changes in microbial functional diversity and activity across the pasture, environmental plantings of different ages and remnant woodlands. Microbial functional diversity, determined using MicroResp™, differed between pasture and environmental plantings, and between environmental plantings and the remnant woodland soil. Ordination distances of microbial functional diversity declined by 7%–36% between environmental plantings and remnant woodland as the age of the environmental planting increased (microbial functionality in plantings becoming similar to that under remnant with increasing age). This result indicated a trajectory of recovery in soil microbial function through time. TOC, TN, P, C:N and EC were positively correlated with microbial activity at all sites. Although TOC and TN levels remained similar under environmental plantings compared to pasture, P levels increased under environmental plantings and with increasing planting age. These results suggest that the environmental plantings had not attained the same functions and nutrient status under their canopies as the remnant woodland soils, but their condition was on a trajectory of change from that of the pasture systems toward that of the remnant vegetation. Therefore, establishment of environmental plantings on degraded lands is an approach that can successfully enhance soil microbial recovery.

在澳大利亚，已经建立了使用本地树木和灌木的环境种植来恢复受土地退化影响的农业景观。我们研究了 1993 年至 2005 年间在新南威尔士州对比土壤类型的三个研究区的牧场和残余林地附近建立的环境种植的时间序列。我们的目标是评估环境种植对土壤特性和微生物属性的影响，并确定是否可以恢复到现存的残余林地条件下。我们检查了总有机碳 (TOC)、总氮 (TN)、可提取磷 (P)、土壤 pH 值、电导率 (EC) 以及整个牧场、不同年龄的环境种植和剩余林地中微生物功能多样性和活动的变化. 使用 MicroResp™ 确定的微生物功能多样性在牧场和环境种植之间以及环境种植和残余林地土壤之间存在差异。随着环境种植年龄的增加，环境种植与残留林地之间微生物功能多样性的排序距离下降了 7%~36%（随着年龄的增加，种植中的微生物功能与残留下的微生物功能相似）。该结果表明土壤微生物功能随时间恢复的轨迹。TOC、TN、P、C:N 和 EC 与所有地点的微生物活动呈正相关。尽管与牧场相比，环境种植下的 TOC 和 TN 水平保持相似，但环境种植下的 P 水平随着种植年龄的增加而增加。这些结果表明，环境种植在其冠层下没有达到与残余林地土壤相同的功能和养分状况，但它们的状况正处于从牧场系统向残余植被转变的轨迹上。因此，在退化土地上建立环境种植是一种可以成功提高土壤微生物恢复的方法。