Effects of Ganoderma lucidum cultivation in forests on soil organic carbon pool and microbial community physiological profiles

Non-timber forest products increase forests resource utilization efficiency and promote rural areas economic development. Ganoderma lucidum (Curtis) P. Karst. (Reishi) is a mushroom having great potential being cultivated as NFTPs. However, there is still a lack of effects about cultivating Reishi in forests on soil organic carbon (C) pool and microbial community, which are important for designing sustainable cultivating strategies. Therefore, this study sampled and analyzed soil from forests cultivated Reishi at 2, 4, and 6 years (LZ2, LZ4, and LZ6, respectively), and in reference natural evergreen broad-leaved forest (CK). Our results manifested that, compared with CK, LZ2 slightly increased total organic carbon (TOC), and significantly increased microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) content by 29.99% and 28.67%, respectively ( P