Biodiversity of marine microbes is safeguarded by phenotypic variability in ecological traits

TL;DR

This paper reveals that phenotypic heterogeneity in marine microbes is a key mechanism for their coexistence and diversity, challenging traditional models that predict minimized trait variation.

Contribution

It provides a rigorous mathematical framework showing that maximal phenotypic variability under equilibrium strategies sustains microbial diversity.

Findings

Maximal phenotypic heterogeneity characterizes equilibrium strategies.

Multiple species can coexist with unlimited diversity.

Phenotypic variability underpins microbial resilience and adaptation.

Abstract

Why, contrary to theoretical predictions, do marine microbe communities harbor tremendous phenotypic heterogeneity? How can so many marine microbe species competing in the same niche coexist? We discovered a unifying explanation for both phenomena by investigating a non-cooperative game that interpolates between individual-level competitions and species-level outcomes. We identified all equilibrium strategies of the game. These strategies are characterized by maximal phenotypic heterogeneity. They are also neutral towards each other in the sense that an unlimited number of species can co-exist while competing according to the equilibrium strategies. Whereas prior theory predicts that natural selection would minimize trait variation around an optimum value, here we obtained a rigorous mathematical proof that species with maximally variable traits are those that endure. This discrepancy may reflect a disparity between predictions from models developed for larger organisms in contrast to our microbe-centric model. Rigorous mathematics proves that phenotypic heterogeneity is itself a mechanistic underpinning of microbial diversity. This discovery has fundamental ramifications for microbial ecology and may represent an adaptive reservoir sheltering biodiversity in changing environmental conditions.