Ranked interaction tables encode microbes’ nutrient preferences and competitive abilities. Two ranked tables with each microbe’s preferences towards nutrients ( ) and their competitive abilities with respect to each particular nutrient ( ) fully define our model. We illustrate them using two microbial species, and , represented correspondingly by dark and light circles, and three nutrients, , , and . Both species can use all three nutrients. Microbial nutrient preferences: the dark species prefers nutrient the most (rank 1 in the table above), next (rank 2), and the least (rank 3), while the yellow species prefers nutrients in the order: > > . Microbial competitive abilities: the dark species (rank 1) can displace the light species (rank 2) in a competition for utilizing the nutrient , but will be displaced by the light species when competing for nutrients and
展开▼
