In this study, four land use type soils from Yingtan Jiangxi Province China, i.e., forest (F), bamboo (B), tea plantation (TP) and upland (U), were collected, and gene of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB), nirS, nirK, and nosZ were determined, to identify the effects of land use on abundance of microorganism in red soil and their role to nitrification and denitrification. The result shows that AOA copy numbers ranged from 6.20 × 106 to 6.58 × 106 copies/g soil and AOB varied from 4.18 × 106 to 7.41 × 106 copies/g soil. The highest AOA and AOB were all measured in U soil that was the highest pH and the lowest C/N ratio. The Abundance of AOB is stimulated by enhancing soil pH due to lime application and more available NH4+ from N fertilization that could be responsible for the high net nitrification rate in U soil. Meanwhile, nirK copy numbers ranged from 6.46 × 106 to 7.05 × 106 copies/g soil, nirS from 5.50 × 106 to 5.85 × 106 copies/g soil, and nosZ from 6.57 × 106 to 7.35 × 106 copies/g soil. The nirS (p<0.05) and nirK (p<0.05) was positively correlated with soil potential denitrification rate.