Table 4.

Direct, indirect, and total path coefficients of the controls of soil organic carbon (SOC), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), and microbial metabolic quotient (qCO₂) by abundance of soil bacterial and saprophytic fungal communities via impacts on specific activities of extracellular enzymes involved in carbon acquisition and oxidation.

Factors	Effect	State variables
		S (Bacteria)	S (Sap)	S (Cacquisition)	S (Coxidation)	S (SOC)	S (MBC)	qCO2
F (Bacteria)	Direct	0	−1.020	0.577	−0.420	0	0	0.451
	Indirect	0.056	−0.104	0.291	−0.757	0.876	0.668	−0.875
	Total	0.506	−1.124	0.868	−1.177	0.876	0.668	−0.424
F (Sap)	Direct	0	0	0	0.284	0	0	0
	Indirect	−0.066	0.014	−0.038	0.042	−0.115	−0.087	0.226
	Total	−0.066	0.014	−0.038	0.326	−0.115	−0.087	0.226
F (Cacquisition)	Direct	0	0	0	−0.360	0.749	0	0
	Indirect	0.591	−0.121	0.341	−0.271	0.274	0.780	−0.538
	Total	0.591	−0.121	0.341	−0.631	1.023	0.780	−0.538
F (Coxidation)	Direct	0	0	0	0	−0.329	0	0.651
	Indirect	−0.233	0.048	−0.134	0.146	−0.074	−0.308	0.145
	Total	−0.233	0.048	−0.134	0.146	−0.403	−0.308	0.796
F (MBC)	Direct	0	0	0	0	−0.241	0	−0.503
	Indirect	−0.171	0.035	−0.099	0.107	−0.055	−0.226	0.106
	Total	−0.171	0.035	−0.099	0.107	−0.296	−0.226	−0.397
F (SOC)	Direct	0.578	0.471	0	0	0	0.763	0
	Indirect	0.100	−0.616	0.408	−0.445	0.226	0.173	−0.441
	Total	0.708	−0.145	0.408	−0.445	0.226	0.936	−0.441

Bacteria, abundance of bacterial community; Sap, abundance of saprophytic fungal community; C_acquisition, C acquisition activity (represented by the activity of β-glucosidase); C_oxidation, C oxidative activity (represented by the activity of phenol oxidase); MBC, microbial biomass carbon; SOC, soil organic carbon; qCO₂, microbial metabolic quotient.