Objective To understand the characteristics and differences among the carbon catabolic diversities of vegetable garden soil microbes from the different regions of Guangdong Province.

Method The community structures of vegetable garden soil microbes in the northern, eastern, western and central regions of Guangdong Province(NR, ER, WR and CR) were analyzed using the Biolog Eco-Plate Method.

Result and conclusion There were different changing tendencies of the Average Well Color Development (AWCD), Shannon Index, Simpson Index and McIntosh Index in the four regions. The AWCD value, which directly reflected the microbial activities, was in the order of NR > ER > WR > CR, demonstrating the differences among the uses of carbon sources and abundance in vegetable garden soil microbes from the different regions. There were differences among utilization degrees of the 31 types, 6 classes of carbon sources by the vegetable garden soil microbes from the four regions. Through principal component analysis, it showed that the contribution rate of the PC1 of the metabolism substrates of vegetable garden soil microbes in the four regions was 54.76%, PC2 was 13.25%, and there were 22 types of metabolism substrates in PC1 with over 0.18 of load, but only 15 types in PC2.Amino acids, carboxylic acids, phenols and carbohydrates were the four main carbon sources separating the two principal component factors. In conclusion, the carbon source utilization modes and metabolic functions of the microbes among the vegetable garden soils from the four regions differ from each other, that is, there are different functional diversities of microbial community among the vegetable garden soils from the four regions under investigation.