Temperature sensitivity of microbial exo-enzyme activities and CO2 efflux across diverse timescales

Understanding how temperature sensitivities of soil microbial activities will vary across time is critical for accurate projections of climate. Here we explore the resistance, resilience, and susceptibility of temperature sensitivities of microbial exo-enzyme activities and respiration across diverse timescales, and assess potential mechanisms associated with these patterns. All biomass-specific rates exhibited resistant temperature sensitivities across time, while those expressed as soil mass-specific rates exhibited resistance or resilience depending on the flux rate assessed. Bacterial and fungal community composition all differed across short- and long-term exposure to different temperature regimes, regardless of microbial functional responses. Resistant temperature sensitivities of biomass-specific rates in spite of distinct community composition imply a fundamentally physiological temperature response of soil microbes that remains invariant across time. Our results also highlight how contrasting two units of observation can reveal key parameters of interest for understanding how microbial resource allocation may vary with changing temperature regime.