Effect of straw and polyacrylamide on the stability of land/water ecotone soil and the field implementation

•The soil nutrients and soil structure were used to evaluate the stability of the special land/water ecotone soil.•We found the benefits of the complex which is a mixed application with 3g/kg of straw and 1g/kg of PAM through the indoor experiment.•The measure above proved to be beneficial to land/water ecotone in engineering.•The mechanism for the effect of straw and PAM on available nutrients, structure and aggregate stability is proposed.