Abstract: The microbial number, microbial biomass, and enzymatic activities in five upland soils under agricultural utilization for 50-700 years were determined, with the correlations between soil microbiological characteristics and agricultural utilization duration analyzed. In the meantime, the functional diversity of microbes in soils having been utilized for 50, 100, and 700 years were investigated. The results showed that at the early stage (<100 years) of agricultural utilization, the number of soil fungi (F) had a slight increase, while the bacterial number (B), B/F ratio, microbial biomass C (C_mic), microbial biomass N (N_mic), and the activities of catalase, invertase and urease all decreased markedly. After utilized for more than 100 years, the F decreased significantly, while the B, B/F ratio, C_mic, N_mic, and the activities of test enzymes all tended to increase. During the whole utilization period from 50 to 700 years, the C_mic/N_mic ratio had a significant increase with year. The Shannon, Simpson, and McIntosh indices of soil microbial community had the same responses to the agricultural utilization duration as the bacterial number, microbial biomass, and enzymatic activities. All of these indicated that in the upland fields in Cixi of Zhejiang Province, shifts of soil microbial community occurred with increasing agriculturalutilization duration, and soil microbiological quality had an overall increase after 100 years agricultural utilization.

Key words: alpine plant, photosynthetic apparatus, photo-protection, adaptation mechanism.