As Microbes are Murdered

This discussion of "what if" the microbes ceased doing what they were made to do, is more relevant than what even the biologist who wrote it may realize.
It's interesting how the definitive answer to the world's biggest question of the day, both scientific and political, is right here.

from schaechter.asmblog.org What if all the bacteria and archaea on Earth decided to go on strike and stop their metabolism all at once? Here are two scenarios, (1) Our demise is driven by the N cycle: Most available N pools in soils would be used up in about 1 week So, no more growth of photosynthetic organisms after about 1 week. N-limited plants could weakly photosynthesize for a short while, storing starch somewhere, but without a growth sink, it would soon halt. With no more photosynthesis, CO2 would slowly build up due to animal respiration and fossil fuel use and lead to greenhouse death of the planet. Scenario 2: Plants kept alive by absurdly huge, planetary fertilizer inputs: Photosynthesis continues, but microbial respiration stops. This leads to about 60 Gt C/year being sucked out of the atmosphere and left in non-decomposing biomass. This would deplete the atmospheric CO2 pool in about 12.5 years, leading to dead plants and a snowball earth.