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Microbial community functional diversity is a sensitive indicator of soil management. This study aimed to determine the influence of ectomycorrhizal fungi [Suillus luteus (L. ex Fr.) S.F. Gray] inoculum on soil microbial community functional diversity of two pines (Pinus tabulaeformis and P. sylvestris var. mongolica). The results showed that all the treatments elevated the Average Well Color Development (AWCD) during the first 96 h of incubation, and the differences among the treatments were obvious. The order of AWCD values of different soil layers in the same tree species is 0-20 cm> 20-40 cm. Both ectomycorrhizal inoculated tree species improved the Shannon diversity index (H), Simpson index (D) and Shannon evenness (E) of soil microbial community in comparison with the control treatments and differ significantly (p<0.05). Principal component analysis demonstrated that the carbon source predominantly used by soil microbes in the control plants were carboxylic acids. With mycorrhizal fungi inoculum, these were replaced by carbohydrates; the community composition of soil microbes can be improved by mycorrhizal fungi inoculum. It was concluded that mycorrhizal fungi inoculum had significant affections on the functional diversity of soil microbial community and enhanced microbial metabolism over control. Also mycorrhizal effect of both afforestation tree species was significant, which indicated that it was very valuable to apply mycorrhizal fungi inoculum to afforestation in arid and barren regions (C) 2018 Friends Science Publishers