A resource-based game theoretical approach for the paradox of the plankton

Abstract

The maintenance of species diversity is a central focus in ecology. It is not rare to observe more species than the number of limiting resources, especially in plankton communities. However, such high species diversity is hard to achieve in theory under the competitive exclusion principles, known as the plankton paradox. Previous studies often focus on the coexistence of predefined species and ignore the fact that species can evolve. We model multi-resource competitions using evolutionary games, where the number of species fluctuates under extinction and the appearance of new species. The interspecific and intraspecific competitions are captured by a dynamical payoff matrix, which has a size of the number of species. The competition strength (payoff entries) is obtained from comparing the capability of species in consuming resources, which can change over time. This allows for the robust coexistence of a large number of species, providing a possible solution to the plankton paradox.

Structure and Long-Term Stability of the Microbiome in Diverse Diatom Cultures

“…The black queen hypothesis describes a process by which negative frequency dependence readily arises in microbial communities as natural selection favors strains that streamline their metabolisms by evolving dependency on other community members for costly “leaky” products and functions ( 43 , 44 ). Essentially, the release of compounds into the extracellular medium by members of the diatom-associated consortium, either purposely or as a product of cell lysis, would seed an unexpectedly complex “marketplace” that could provide many opportunities for diversification and specialization both before and after cultivation ( 45 ). Importantly, negative frequency dependence can slow competitive exclusion and stabilize coexistence of competing lineages even on time scales of thousands of generations ( 46 ).…”

‘Boom‐and‐busted’ dynamics of phytoplankton–virus interactions explain the paradox of the plankton

“…Exploration of the factors related to the paradox of the plankton has long provided a challenge for modellers (Petersen, 1975; Huang et al ., 2016). Our work, as the first attempt to produce a complex description of virus–host plankton interactions in an ecological setting, demonstrates a role for viruses as enablers or disablers of phytoplankton bloom dynamics that is more profound than previously thought.…”

“…The existence of such populations (i.e. the paradox of the plankton), has been traditionally explained by invoking the careful selection of traits amongst the producers and consumers (Abrams, 2000; Huang et al ., 2016) and for phytoplankton with roles for allelopathic agents (Fistarol et al ., 2005; Felpeto et al ., 2018). There are important impacts of numerical abundance in such interactions (Holt, 1984) because of the sensitivity of trophic dynamics to predator–prey encounter rates and subsequent nutrient recycling (Mitra & Flynn, 2006) An alternative explanation for coexistence employs a ‘kill‐the‐winner’ concept (otherwise known as the KtW hypothesis – Thingstad, 2000; Winter et al ., 2010), which assumes that a density‐dependent grazing factor prevents over‐dominance by an individual group of organisms.…”

Competing or collaborating, with no symmetrical behaviour: Leadership opportunities and winning strategies under stability

“…1 , no stable solution with all agents surviving is found (see case IVa in Table 2, first column). This can be considered in line, however extended to three agents, with the exclusion principle (Huang et al (2016)). Here stability is reached in case IIa, with the leader only survivor (i.e.…”