Extreme CO2 disturbance and the resilience of soil microbial communities

Elevated soil [CO2], terminates above- and below-ground inputs of plant carbon (C). Soil organic matter (SOM) likely becomes more recalcitrant (increasing gray scale) resulting in lower dissolved organic carbon (DOC) for microbial consumption. Reduced microbial biomass is increasingly represented by taxa suited to chronic energy stress, e.g., archaea (A), or bacteria (B) vs. fungi (F). Specific extracellular enzyme activity remains stable, but may increasingly reflect forms immobilized on mineral surfaces (ES) over those actively produced by microbes (EP).