Biocrust cyanobacteria are ubiquitous organisms in dryland environments that can enhance soil stability and improve nutrient conditions in reconstructed or disturbed soils. Despite the demonstrated benefits of cyanobacterial inoculation for promoting soil fertility, there is limited knowledge about the impacts of introducing cultured cyanobacteria on the indigenous microbial communities. Here, we conducted a microcosm experiment under controlled conditions using indigenous biocrust cyanobacteria and locally sourced topsoil substrate commonly used in dryland restoration in the Australian arid zone. We inoculated the topsoil with a consortium composed of Leptolyngbya sp. and Scytonema sp. cyanobacteria, to assess the effects of the inoculated cyanobacteria on (i) the soil chemical properties, i.e., pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total organic carbon (TOC), and nitrogen (TN) of the inoculated topsoil, (ii) the early formation of an artificial soil biocrust and iii) the composition and diversity of the resident bacterial community. Our results showed that the inoculated cyanobacterial consortia decreased the EC, but changes in the TOC and TN were not significant after 80 days. A higher content of chlorophyll a in the inoculated samples compared to the control, confirmed the survival of the cyanobacterial inoculants after 80 days. The inoculated cyanobacteria promoted gypsum formation on the soil surface indicating that they are actively modifying the upper layers of the soil profile and improving habitability. Although immediately after inoculation cyanobacteria dominated the abundance of bacterial phylotypes, these were replaced by other phyla such as Actinobacteria, after 80 days. The Shannon diversity and Simpson diversity indexes between control and inoculated soils differed at the time of inoculation but were similar at the end of the experiment. These results suggest that, in the short term, the introduced cyanobacteria do not significantly affect the native resident bacterial communities and are capable of colonizing the topsoil without affecting the natural community.

生物壳蓝藻是旱地环境中无处不在的生物，可以增强土壤稳定性并改善重建或扰动土壤中的营养条件。尽管蓝藻接种对促进土壤肥力已证明有好处，但关于引入培养的蓝藻对本地微生物群落的影响的知识有限。在这里，我们使用澳大利亚干旱区旱地恢复中常用的本地生物壳蓝藻和当地采购的表土基质在受控条件下进行了微观实验。我们用由Leptolyngbya sp组成的聚生体接种表土。和Scytonemasp. 蓝藻，评估接种的蓝藻对 (i) 土壤化学性质的影响，即接种表土的 pH 值、电导率 (EC)、总有机碳 (TOC) 和氮 (TN)，(ii)人工土壤生物结皮的早期形成和 iii) 常驻细菌群落的组成和多样性。我们的结果表明，接种的蓝细菌聚生体降低了 EC，但 80 天后 TOC 和 TN 的变化不显着。叶绿素a含量较高在接种样品中与对照相比，证实了蓝藻接种剂在 80 天后的存活率。接种的蓝藻促进了土壤表面石膏的形成，表明它们正在积极改变土壤剖面的上层并提高宜居性。虽然在接种后立即蓝藻占据了细菌系统发育的丰度，但在 80 天后，这些被其他门如放线菌取代。对照和接种土壤之间的香农多样性和辛普森多样性指数在接种时不同，但在实验结束时相似。这些结果表明，在短期内，