{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,12]],"date-time":"2026-09-12T05:08:07Z","timestamp":1789189687551,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,10]],"date-time":"2026-09-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788998400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Key R&D Program of Intergovernmental Cooperation in Science and Technology","award":["2023YFE0100700"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023YFE0100700"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100018555","name":"Science and Technology Program of Guizhou Province","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["GZSTCKP [2025]019"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["GZSTCKP [2025]019"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100018555","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Anhui Provincial Science and Technology Innovation and Development Program","award":["202523anull050017"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["202523anull050017"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Microorganisms"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The Soil Quality Index (SQI) is a vital tool for evaluating soil quality; however, traditional approaches seldom integrate microbial data from high-throughput sequencing\u2014commonly used to characterize soil microbial communities\u2014into the SQI framework. This study enhances the SQI by incorporating microbial indicators derived from high-throughput sequencing, establishing a more comprehensive evaluation system. We collected soil samples from mining areas and analyzed their fundamental physicochemical properties and microbial indicators. Four SQI models were constructed using different indicator sets: (1) only physicochemical properties (T-SQI); (2) physicochemical properties and bacterial \u03b1-diversity (\u03b1-SQI); (3) physicochemical properties, \u03b1-diversity, and relative abundances of the top five abundant bacteria (\u03b1MA-SQI); and (4) physicochemical properties, \u03b1-diversity, and relative abundances of the top five bacteria based on LDA scores (\u03b1BM-SQI). Results demonstrated that integrating multi-level microbial indicators improved the rationality of soil quality rankings and significantly strengthened correlations with \u03b1-diversity. Gemmatimonadota was consistently selected in the Minimum Data Set (MDS) for both \u03b1MA-SQI and \u03b1BM-SQI, highlighting its ecological importance. Statistically, microbial indicators at the order and family levels were most suitable for inclusion in the MDS, as their results deviated least from the total dataset. In conclusion, incorporating microbial diversity across taxonomic levels refines the SQI, enabling a more accurate and holistic assessment of soil health.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/microorganisms14092009","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,10]],"date-time":"2026-09-10T10:27:21Z","timestamp":1789036041000},"page":"2009","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Integrating Microbial Indicators from High-Throughput Sequencing into Soil Quality Index: A Case Study in a Restored Mining Area"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0010-3283","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhengjun","family":"Feng","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China"},{"name":"Engineering Research Center of Resource Efficiency Enhancing and Carbon Emission Reduction in Yellow River Basin, Ministry of Education of the People\u2019s Republic of China, Taiyuan 030006, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Chaolong","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, 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