Objective The aims were to clarify the impact of different litter diversities on reclaimed soil environment, microbial metabolic limitations and soil multifunctionality.

Method A total of 30 topsoil samples were collected from Pinus tabulaeformis (CF), Ulmus pumila and Pinus tabulaeformis mixed forest (MF) and poplar forest (BF) in the reclaimed area of the South Drainage Yard of Antaibao Open Pit Coal Mine in Pingshuo Kuangqu, Shanxi Province, and quantitative qPCR chip technology was used to determine the abundance of soil carbon (C), nitrogen and phosphorus (P) cycle functional genes.

Result ①The increase in litter diversity had a significant positive effect on the physical and chemical properties, enzyme activities and microbial diversities of reclaimed soil. ②Microbial metabolic limitations were mainly regulated by stoichiometric ratios, and microbial C limitations in reclaimed soil were negatively correlated with bacterial richness, but had no significant relationship with fungal richness. Increasing litter diversities was conducive to alleviating C limitation, but not to P limitation. ③litter diversity significantly improved soil multifunctionality, and soil pH, organic matter and bacterial diversity were the key driving factors for soil multifunctionality.

Conclusion The increase in litter diversity is conducive to the improvement of reclaimed soil properties and the improvement of microbial functions, thereby indirectly manipulating microbial metabolic pathways, effectively improving soil multifunctionality, which has important theoretical significance for the scientific allocation of vegetation resources and nature-based solutions to serve the ecological restoration of damaged mines in the future.