The ability for microbes to enter dormant states is adaptive under resource fluctuations and has been linked to the maintenance of diversity. Nevertheless, the mechanism by which microbial dormancy gives rise to the density‐dependent feedbacks required for stable coexistence under resource fluctuations is not well understood. Via analysis of consumer‐resource models, we show that the stable coexistence of dormancy and non‐dormancy strategists is a consequence of the former benefiting more from resource fluctuations while simultaneously reducing overall resource variability, which sets up the requisite negative frequency dependence. Moreover, we find that dormants can coexist alongside gleaner and opportunist strategies in a competitive‐exclusion‐defying case of three species coexistence on a single resource. This multi‐species coexistence is typically characterised by non‐simple assembly rules that cannot be predicted from pairwise competition outcomes. The diversity maintained via this three‐way trade‐off represents a novel phenomenon that is ripe for further theoretical and empirical inquiry.

中文翻译：

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微生物休眠支持资源波动下的多物种共存


微生物进入休眠状态的能力在资源波动下具有适应性，并且与多样性的维持有关。然而，微生物休眠引起资源波动下稳定共存所需的密度依赖反馈的机制尚不清楚。通过对消费者资源模型的分析，我们表明，休眠和非休眠策略的稳定共存是前者从资源波动中受益更多，同时减少总体资源可变性的结果，这建立了必要的负频率依赖性。此外，我们发现，在三种物种在单一资源上共存的情况下，休眠物种可以与拾穗者和机会主义策略共存。这种多物种共存的典型特征是非简单的组装规则，无法从成对竞争结果中预测。通过这种三向权衡维持的多样性代表了一种新颖的现象，对于进一步的理论和实证研究来说，这种现象已经成熟。