Soils frequently experience environmental stresses that may have transient or persistent impact on important ecosystem services, such as carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling. Microbial communities underpin resistance (the ability to withstand a stress) and resilience (the ability to recover from a stress) of these functions. Whilst functional stability and resilience have been studied extensively, the link to genetic stability is missing. In this study, the resistance and resilience of C mineralization, ammonia oxidation and denitrification, their associated gene abundances (16S rRNA, bacterial amoA, nirK, nirS, nosZ-I and nosZ-II) and bacterial community structures (T-RFLP 16S rRNA) were compared in two managed soils for 28 days after stressing the soils with either a persistent (1 mg Cu soil g⁻¹) or a transient (heat at 40 °C for 16 h) stress. The average resistance of C mineralization to Cu was 60%, which was significantly greater than the resistance of ammonia oxidation (25%) and denitrification (31%) to Cu. Similarly, the average resilience of C mineralization to Cu was 52%, which was significantly greater than the resilience of ammonia oxidation (12%) and denitrification (18%) to Cu. However, this pattern was not significant after heat stress, indicating the critical role of different stressors. Changes in total bacterial community structure rather than abundance of 16S rRNA reflected the responses of C mineralization to Cu and heat. Both Cu and heat significantly decreased functional gene abundance (amoA, nirK, nirS, nosZ-I and nosZ-II), however, a significant recovery of denitrifying gene abundance was observed after 28 days following heat. There were lack of constant relationships between functional and genetic stability, highlighting that soil physiochemical properties, the nature of the stressor, and microbial life history traits combine to confer functional resistance and resilience. Genetic responses on their own are therefore inadequate in predicating changes to soil functions following stresses.

土壤经常遭受环境压力，这些环境压力可能会对重要的生态系统服务（例如碳（C）和氮（N）循环）产生短暂或持续的影响。微生物群落是这些功能的抵抗力（抵御压力的能力）和抵御力（抵御压力的能力）的基础。尽管已经对功能稳定性和弹性进行了广泛研究，但缺少与遗传稳定性的联系。在这项研究中，C矿化，氨氧化和反硝化及其相关基因丰度（16S rRNA，细菌amoA，nirK，nirS，nosZ-I和nosZ-II的抗性和复原力））和细菌群落结构（T-RFLP 16S rRNA）在两种土壤中进行了连续28天的胁迫后比较，其中一种土壤是持久性土壤（1 mg铜土壤g ^-1）或瞬态（在40°C下加热16小时）应力。C的平均矿化度对Cu的抗性为60％，大大高于氨水氧化（25％）和反硝化（31％）对Cu的抗性。同样，C矿化对Cu的平均弹性为52％，大大高于氨氧化（12％）和反硝化（18％）对Cu的弹性。然而，这种模式在热应激后并不明显，表明不同应激源的关键作用。总细菌群落结构的变化而不是16S rRNA的丰度反映了C矿化对Cu和热量的响应。铜和热量均显着降低了功能基因的丰度（amoA，nirK，nirS，nosZ-I和nosZ-II），然而，加热28天后观察到反硝化基因丰度的显着恢复。在功能和遗传稳定性之间缺乏恒定的联系，突显了土壤的理化特性，胁迫源的性质以及微生物的生活史特征相结合，赋予了功能抗性和恢复力。因此，仅靠遗传反应不足以预测胁迫后土壤功能的变化。