This study was conducted to figure out the relationships among soil chemical properties and bacterial biomass related to denitrification and sulfur-reducing and the activity of dehydrogenase, and ultimately to consider the usefulness of dehydrogenase activity as a tool for evaluating the dynamics of forest soil ecosystem. Four sites were selected for the collection of soil samples within two regions(Onsan industrial estate as a polluted region and Mt. Mani at Kanghwa island as a clean area) with two forest types (coniferous and deciduous stands). The soils of Mt. Mani showed higher amount of organic matter, total nitrogen and available phosphorus than those collected from Onsan industrial estate, which indicated that the soils were more beneficial for microbial growth than those of Onsan. The dehydrogenase activity was more sensitive than the denitrifying bacteria or sulfur-reducing bacteria since the activity was significantly different between the regions and season while the two bacterial biomass were not significantly different between the two regions. In addition, the dehydrogenase activity showed relatively high correlation coefficients with organic matter(r=0.53, p=0.004), total nitrogen(r=0.41, p=0.008) and C/Ava. P-ratio(r=-0.52, p=0.001), which was thought to be closely related with microbial activity. Thus, the dehydrogenase activity was thought to be a useful index of soil ecosystem dynamics with considering that the technique need to be applied with the same soil texture for the comparison of the activity as other researchers indicated.