yet it appears from our MBC data in 2011 that these limiting factors for plant growth do
not affect soil microbial abundance. This suggests that soil microorganisms adapt more readily to limiting abiotic conditions by optimizing their metabolism, resulting in the lower qCO2 observed in 2011 soils. Following the same trend, the community level physiological profiles revealed by the Eco-BIOLOG plates suggest that neither the functional/metabolic diversity of the microbial community (indicated by the NUS and Shannon H0 diversity index) nor its average capacity to metabolize different carbon substrates (AWCD) are negatively affected by drought or soil compaction,