Major concerns-
1) The figure 2 is an important figure showcasing the effects of 3-CA disturbance levels on organic carbon (plots A, C), biomass (plot C) and nitrification products (plots B, D). We would like to suggest the authors to make the functional data for Day 14, available in the supplementary Figure 2 in the main paper, which will make the story line of observed correlations on Day 35 easier to understand.
Similarly, it would be interesting to have a PCoA plot of an intermediate day in Figure 1 for continuity of story and to support the authors' results of observed patterns on Day 35.
2) The paper was a very interesting read and we had a very lively discussion about what kind of measurements, we as readers would like to read in the paper. So, we would like to suggest some improvements in the experimental design-
a) Addition of data points before and after 3-CA disturbance was introduced at each time point. This will help confirm if the functional changes were caused by introduction of disturbance or random effect.
b) Representation of time, t=0 when the microcosm experiment commenced to check if the microbial diversity and functional variation caused by disturbances were different from initial state of the community.
c) Along with weekly disturbance levels, varying intensities and duration of disturbance (e.g- data collection every two days or bi-weekly, more spread of intermediate levels) might have a different pattern of microbial community diversity and function. Questions we can ask are, would the system reach the observed IDH pattern at an early stage? Would the intermediate levels still follow the IDH model?
3) We would like to appreciate the authors' usage of different statistical tests for data analysis and visual colors to represent the disturbance levels. We would like to suggest to add distinct data labels for each of the disturbance levels. For example in Figure 3, along with using identical colors in A, B and C plots, usage of identical data labels in C would help make the figure more interpret-able.