Abstract: We used phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) method to analyze the effects of shortterm (18 months) litter manipulation on soil microbial communities in a Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica plantation. The results showed that removing litter had no significant effect on soil microbial PLFAs, but doubling litter significantly changed the soil microbial community structure. Specifically, doubling litter significantly improved the total PLFAs of soil microbes, PLFAs of Grampositive bacteria (G+), Gramnegative bacteria (G-), and protozoon, but had no significant effects on the PLFAs of fungi and actinomycetes, and on the ratios of bacteria/fungi and G+/G-. Soil total microbial PLFAs and bacterial PLFAs increased by 82.4% and 93.9% by doubling litter, respectively. The Shannon’s diversity index, Pielou’s evenness index, and Simpson’s dominance index were not influenced by litter manipulation. Principal components analysis (PCA) still indicated that litter manipulation changed the soil microbial community structure. PC1 (89.83%) was mainly contributed by PLEAs of bacteria, including 16:1ω5c, 16:1ω7c, cy17:0ω7c, cy19:0ω7c, i14:0, and i15:0.

Key words: age determination, Liza haematocheila, Yangtze Estuary, sagittal otolith, morphological characteristics