<p>Soil salinization poses a severe threat to crop survival and productivity. Application of amendments is considered as effective strategy for improving soil properties, bacterial communities and crop yield. Thus, a field study was conducted to examine the impacts of amendments on soil properties, bacterial communities, and maize yield. High-throughput absolute quantification sequencing was used to investigate soil bacterial communities in tasseling and maturity stages. Five treatments including: CK, control without amendments; DE, desulfurization gypsum; SA, soil ameliorant; FA, farm manure; DSF, desulfurization gypsum plus soil ameliorant and farm manure. The results showed that amendments application led to increased soil nutrient levels and decreased soil pH and electrical conductivity (EC). Enzyme activities were significantly enhanced in the FA and DSF treatments, while no significant differences were observed among DE, SA and CK treatments. Five predominant phylum were detected including Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes, Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria in all soil samples. The application of amendments increased bacterial diversity, richness, and functional potential of the N and C cycle, and altered the soil bacterial community structure relative to the CK treatment, in which DSF treatment had the greatest effect. The interconnectivity of the bacterial co-occurrence networks was notably strengthened after applying amendments, with Proteobacteria identified as the key taxa among the treatments. Maize yield improved after the application of amendments, and structural equation modeling (SEM) results indicated that soil properties, enzyme and bacterial communities were the major factors influencing yield performance. Overall, the results of this study suggest that combined application of desulfurization gypsum, soil ameliorant and farm manure could be an effective approach for improving soil properties, bacterial communities and enhancing crop yield in saline-alkali soils.</p>