Nutrient limitation is widespread in terrestrial ecosystems. Accordingly, representations of nitrogen (N) limitation in land models typically dampen rates of terrestrial carbon (C) accrual, compared with C-only simulations. These previous findings, however, rely on soil biogeochemical models that implicitly represent microbial activity and physiology. Here we present results from a biogeochemical model testbed that allows us to investigate how an explicit vs. implicit representation of soil microbial activity, as represented in the MIcrobial-MIneral Carbon Stabilization (MIMICS) and Carnegie–Ames–Stanford Approach (CASA) soil biogeochemical models, respectively, influence plant productivity and terrestrial C and N fluxes at initialization and over the historical period. When forced with common boundary conditions, larger soil C pools simulated by the MIMICS model reflect longer inferred soil organic matter (SOM) turnover times than those simulated by CASA. At steady state, terrestrial ecosystems experience greater N limitation when using the MIMICS-CN model, which also increases the inferred SOM turnover time. Over the historical period, however, higher rates of N mineralization were fueled by warming-induced acceleration of SOM decomposition over high latitude ecosystems in the MIMICS-CN simulation reduce this N limitation, resulting in faster rates of vegetation C accrual. Moreover, as SOM stoichiometry is an emergent property of MIMICS-CN, we highlight opportunities to deepen understanding of sources of persistent SOM and explore its potential sensitivity to environmental change. Our findings underscore the need to improve understanding and representation of plant and microbial resource allocation and competition in land models that represent coupled biogeochemical cycles under global change scenarios.