Copper stress in flooded soil: Impact on enzyme activities, microbial community composition and diversity in the rhizosphere of Salix integra

[Display omitted] •Both Cu and flooding significantly alter soil enzymes and microbiota.•Fungal community is more sensitive to flooding than bacterial community.•Soil Cu is the key determinant affecting microbial community composition. Climate change has increased flooding frequency, making the heavy metal polluted areas more vulnerable, and led to increased global land degradation. Information about the alteration of soil microbiota under heavy metal pollution and flooding is still rather limited. Fast-growing trees are candidates for phytoremediation of heavy metal polluted soils. Therefore, the impact of Cu pollution on microbiota in soil used for cultivating Salix integra Thunb. was investigated with and without flooding for 60 d. Bacterial and fungal communities were accessed via partial 16S rRNA (V3–V4) and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) genes. The activity of invertase, urease and cellulase were markedly decreased by 28.5–59%, 55.0–76.7% and 17.3–34.1%, respectively, with increasing Cu levels. Flooding significantly increased the activity of polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase by 56.3% and 41.4% at the highest Cu level compared to its respective non-flooded condition. High Cu concentration significantly decreased the richness and diversity of the bacterial community, and fungi were more sensitive than bacteria under flooding conditions. Redundancy analysis suggests that Cu, Fe and soil organic matter are the key determinants affecting the composition of microbial communities. Our findings provide new insight into the responses of soil microbes to Cu-contamination and contribute to our understanding of metal toxicity in soil-woody plant systems under flooded conditions.