To relate the output of the model with our biological data, we
reinterpreted the modelled rates as predictions of microbial distribution.
Implicit biomass models, like the one we developed,
predict the rates of processes catalysed by all microbes performing
that process and assume that the biomass of the microbial community
equilibrates quickly to the changing chemical environment22.
They also assume that ‘everything is everywhere’ and are not constrained
by ecological processes such as dispersion. We therefore