Impact of Paenarthrobacter ureafaciens ZF1 on the soil enzyme activity and microbial community during the bioremediation of atrazine-contaminated soils

Bioremediation of atrazine-contaminated soil is considered a safe and effective approach in removing contaminates from the soil. However, the effects of adding foreign organisms to assist bioremediation on soil environmental quality and ecosystem are unclear. Here, the ecological remediation potential of strain Paenarthrobacter ureafaciens ZF1 on atrazine-contaminated soil was investigated through miniature experiments using variations in soil enzymes and bacterial communities as indicators. The results showed that strain ZF1 accelerated atrazine degradation, which could completely degrade atrazine at concentrations of 100 mg·L(− 1) atrazine within 2 h in liquid medium and could remove up to 99.3% of atrazine (100 mg·kg(− 1) in soil) within 6 days. During soil bioremediation, atrazine promoted the activities of urease and cellulase, and inhibited the activities of sucrase and catalase, while the strain ZF1 significantly promoted the activities of these four enzymes. High-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes showed that ZF1 affected the relative abundance and bacterial community structure, and promoted bacterial diversity and evenness. Furthermore, redundancy analysis revealed a certain correlation among the strain ZF1, atrazine residue, soil enzyme activity, and soil bacterial community. The strain ZF1 in this work demonstrated remarkable potential for ecological restoration, and can be an effective and environmentally friendly alternative in remediating atrazine-contaminated soil. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12866-022-02556-4.