What are the problems of soil microorganisms in soil improvement and remediation?

01 Current Problems
Microorganisms have rich and diverse functions, and various microbial agents (fertilizers) have been developed and utilized. Currently, plant microbe joint restoration of ecological environment has been widely used. However, there are still some issues that need to be noted when using microorganisms for soil improvement and remediation.
Microbial agents have a single function and their effects are not significant. The adaptability and functions of different bacterial strains to the environment are not the same, making it difficult to find a universally applicable microbial agent (fertilizer). Therefore, it is necessary to carefully select the required products under different geographical and environmental conditions. At present, some commercialized microorganisms are in mass production with limited strain resources. Many products often use the same strains, and microbial fertilizers (agents) mainly composed of bacteria have reduced effectiveness due to their strong spontaneous mutation during promotion and use. Many of these functions require the synergistic action of multiple microorganisms to be completed, but some microorganisms have antagonistic or mutually influential functions. Therefore, after completing strain function screening, it is very important to continue screening suitable strain ratios and mixed culture techniques.
The effect of microbial action is unstable. The vigorous vitality of beneficial microorganisms in microbial fertilizers (agents) is the basis for their effectiveness and persistence. Microorganisms are living organisms, and their functions and activities are easily influenced by various factors such as the environment. Therefore, it is important to avoid factors that may affect microbial activity during the production, use, and transportation of microbial fertilizers. However, changes in various conditions such as regional environment, geography, and ecology may cause the effects of microorganisms to deviate significantly from expectations. In actual production, it is necessary to select microorganisms suitable for the region based on factors such as climate and soil conditions, and this screening process may delay the time for ecological restoration.
It is difficult to promote and apply. The isolation and screening of functional strains in the early stage of microbial preparations require certain costs, and their production, transportation, and use costs are higher than those of ordinary fertilizers, and their effectiveness is slower than that of fertilizers. Due to these reasons, it is difficult to promote and apply them.
Secondly, can the effective reproduction and expected effects of microbial agents be guaranteed? Different application methods may have a certain impact on the effectiveness, which also affects people's confidence in microbial applications. In addition, the development and utilization of functional microorganisms that are sensitive to environmental requirements also need to be explored.
The impact of exogenous microbial addition on the ecosystem has not been evaluated yet. Exogenous addition of microorganisms to the existing ecosystem also requires evaluation of their impact on the microorganisms in the existing ecosystem. At present, there is a lack of extensive research on the long-term effects of exogenous microbial additions on soil characteristics and local microbial communities, and detailed systematic studies are needed before large-scale development and utilization of a particular microorganism. It is necessary to clarify the roles played by different microorganisms in ecosystems, reveal their impacts and mechanisms on plant and soil communities, explore and develop microbial strains or agents suitable for different ecosystem restoration, comprehensively evaluate their effectiveness, and screen products with good performance for large-scale use in grassland ecological restoration.

02 Outlook
Strengthen theoretical and applied basic research. At present, there is a lot of research on the effects and effects of microbial products, but there is relatively little research on their mechanisms of action. Improving the expansion ability of microbial preparations in various environments is a bottleneck problem that needs to be solved in practical production. At the same time, the safety of artificially introducing a large number of microorganisms into ecosystems is also an urgent research direction.
Breeding strains with excellent performance. With the continuous development of science and technology, especially the rapid advancement of molecular biology techniques such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and whole genome association analysis, powerful tools have been provided for studying the types and functions of microorganisms. By combining these new technologies, efficient and rapid screening of strains with a wide range of functions and significant growth promoting effects can be achieved, and functional microorganisms can be isolated and screened. Create high-yield bacterial strains with target functions and suitable for development and utilization using genetic modification or gene editing techniques.
Combination of functional bacterial strains and microbiota. Aggregating different functional strains to exert different functions, this microbial composite microbial agent has more advantages, especially when several microorganisms with different functional groups and symbiotic relationships are mixed and cultured to form a composite microbial agent with stronger and more stable growth promoting ability, which is the trend in the development of microbial agents. In soil remediation, multiple functions of microorganisms need to be utilized, many of which require the synergistic action of multiple microorganisms to complete. However, some microorganisms have competitive or antagonistic effects, and it is necessary to evaluate the co culture characteristics of different strains through various means, screen the best co culture combination, and analyze its impact on soil physical and chemical properties, in order to screen suitable bacterial combinations for commercial development. Further development is needed for the large-scale expansion and production technology of different functional strain combinations in the future.
In summary, the functions of soil microorganisms are increasingly valued, and their roles in promoting nutrient cycling, improving soil health, improving soil texture, and reducing soil pollution hazards are playing an increasingly important role in soil improvement and remediation.
Moreover, with the development of technology, more and more functional microbial communities have been successfully screened, and their mechanisms of action have been elucidated. This lays the foundation for selecting suitable microorganisms and their utilization methods for specific locations and soils, and has enormous potential for application in future soil remediation.