Oh, I never said that bacteria won't go extinct. Many will. I implied that from the decreased biodiversity part, but I should've made it more clear. Thing is, t

Oh, I never said that bacteria won't go extinct. Many will. I implied that from the decreased biodiversity part, but I should've made it more clear. Thing is, that because of their population sizes, there will always be outliers in terms of enzymatic activity. Mind, there are certainly limits. Species that survive such an event will be significantly different from their predecessors in the properties of their pathways. Nevertheless, seeing as many phytoplankta have life spans of several days, and that they inhabit large portions of the oceans, the removal of one 'species' of plankton from a region will likely open up the niche for another to inhabit. Life happens to contain enough competition to allow for life past mass extinctions. Different life, sure, but these self-replicating patterns are difficult to cull.