Declined symptoms in Myrica rubra: The influence of soil acidification and rhizosphere microbial communities

•We compared the rhizospheric soil of healthy and declined Myrica rubra trees.•We studied physicochemical traits, microbial communities, and metabolites of soil.•Decline soil: reduced pH and correlated nutrients and metals.•Microbial communities showed variation with the enrichment of microbial biomarkers.•Soil acidification, altered microbial communities and metabolites affected declined symptoms.