“…Soil microbial community structures and activities are altered by cadmium toxicity and salinity (Cáliz et al, 2013; Rath et al, 2016; Wood et al, 2016a,b; Thiem et al, 2018). Such alterations to the soil microbial community have important repercussions in agricultural settings, where microbes (both soil bacteria and fungi) are critical drivers of soil health and agricultural crop productivity (Mau et al, 2019; Zhang et al, 2019). As such, exploring novel avenues to control stress-induced shifts in soil microbial community composition and functionality could be a key to unfolding agricultural constraints and achieve better agricultural productivities and sustainable development in the future.…”