Soil nitrification has been reported to be sensitive to heavy metals and may be a suitable index of soil microbial activities to pollutants. In this study, nitrification measurements and luminescence-based biosensor tests were carried out to assess the pollution impact of metal contaminated soils. Perfusion-based nitrification was the most sensitive method to examine the toxic response of heavy metal. Soil nitrification was inhibited by copper, zinc and nickel. Zinc had strongest influence on nitrification. The incubation-based nitrification method had no significant response to metal toxicity. The bioluminescence-based bacterial sensors respond to acute toxicity, but showed no response to the metal contaminated soils. The aged soils had little evidence of bioavailable metal in the solution phase. The toxicity of metal pollution was associated with various environmental parameters that functional microbial-based tests are valuable techniques in pollution studies.