The role of forest plantations in regulating soil ecosystem functions remains poorly understood in terrestrial ecosystems from Africa. Here, we evaluated the importance of forest plantations in regulating soil microbial functional profiles, community-level physiological profiles (CLPPs) and activities of soil microbial communities compared with native forests in two contrasting seasons. We found that forest plantations consistently reduced the rates of multiple soil functions associated with soil nutrient and carbon (C) cycling and shifted the activity and functional profile of microbial communities in two contrasting seasons and two independent regions from South Africa. Our results suggest land use changes from natural forests to plantations to maintain a continuously growing human population will have important negative consequences for soil functions in forest ecosystems from Africa with implications for ecosystem functioning under changing environments.

在非洲的陆地生态系统中，人工林在调节土壤生态系统功能方面的作用仍然知之甚少。在这里，我们评估了森林人工林在调节土壤微生物功能概况、群落水平生理概况 (CLPP) 和土壤微生物群落活动方面的重要性，与两个不同季节的原生森林相比。我们发现，在南非的两个不同季节和两个独立地区，人工林持续降低与土壤养分和碳 (C) 循环相关的多种土壤功能的速率，并改变微生物群落的活动和功能特征。