Background and Aims <p>Bamboo, as an economically important forest species, exhibits high invasiveness into adjacent forests, leading to biodiversity decline and altered soil processes. Although studies have examined the impacts of bamboo invasion on microbial communities, the effects on microbially-driven soil carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycling remain poorly understood.</p> Methods <p>We combined amplicon and metagenomic sequencing to investigate soil microbial communities and functions in bamboo forests and adjacent broad-leaved forests in subtropical China.</p> Results <p>Bamboo invasion reduced soil fertility and shifted microbial communities from copiotrophic to oligotrophic taxa. Metagenomic analysis demonstrated that bamboo invasion diminished microbial functional gene abundance associated with soil C-N-P cycling, restricting soil nutrient cycling functions. Further analyses revealed that bamboo invasion declined soil dissolved organic C, elevated the abundance of genes linked to labile C (i.e., starch, pectin, and chitin) degradation and diminished the abundance of recalcitrant C (i.e., lignin) degradation genes. Bamboo invasion increased nitrification genes abundance while decreasing the abundance of denitrification and assimilatory-dissimilatory nitrate reduction genes. Therefore, the accumulation of soil nitrate N and the reduction of ammonium N may be associated with weakened N cycle-related gene functions. Bamboo invasion reduced the abundance of P cycling-related genes, which may contribute to decreased soil P content and ultimately impair soil P cycling function.</p> Conclusion <p>Our findings reveal that bamboo invasion disrupts soil microbial structure and function, compromising ecosystem nutrient dynamics. This study elucidates the interactions between plants and soil microorganisms, thereby providing effective strategies for forest ecological restoration.&#xa0;</p>