To what extent is soil biota linked to soil attributes, climate change, land degradation, biodiversity loss, and pollution in Congolese coastal plains?

Human activities such as afforestation, reforestation and off-shore oil exploitation have tremendous impact on the coastal ecosystems including the soil biota. The link between soil bacterial and fungal community structure diversity, other soil attributes, and environmental crises such as climate change, land degradation, biodiversity loss, and pollution in mixed-species plantations involving nitrogen-fixing species.

The prevalence of Actinobacteria playing a key role in decomposing organic material, may have been increased soil C storage reported in the acacia and eucalyptus plantations. Regarding fungal community structure and diversity, the relative abundance of Ascomycota which have the ability to preserve the community stability following environmental disturbances due to the expanded number of resources, was dominant. High sulfur concentrations, or H₂S emissions, derived in all likelihood from oil exploitation, have the potential to enhance Actinobacteria growth and biomass, while they decrease, in contrast, the prevalence and ability of the Ascomycota. The sulfur was found to being positively correlated to Actinobacteria, but negatively interrelated to Ascomycota.

Acacia and eucalyptus plantations boost soil resilience against the climate and land-use changes through C storage and co-benefits. However, oil exploitation activities involving H₂S emissions may diminish the ability of such mixed-species plantations to withstand the environmental stress and they also tend to harm soil health and coastal environment in the long term. Oil exploitation has an enormous economic importance for the Republic of the Congo. Special attention may be paid to the risk of harming the coastal ecosystems when off-shore oil exploitation is occurring.