Do microbial osmolytes or extracellular depolymerisation products accumulate as soil dries?

The responses of soil to dehydration differed between lab incubations and mesocosms, despite involving the same soil being dehydrated to the same final water content. When soil was dehydrated slowly in 200-L mesocosms the accumulation of osmolytes was more quantitatively significant than accumulation of depolymerisation products, whereas when soil was dehydrated more rapidly in lab incubations there was negligible accumulation of osmolytes but large accumulation of depolymerisation products. This study has highlighted that when soil dries the accumulation of osmolytes within microbial biomass and depolymerisation products within the extracellular fraction of soil are both quantitatively important and likely underpin the flush of soil CO2 efflux when dried soil is re-wet.