Behrenfeld Michael, Bisson Kelsey, Boss Emmanuel, Graff Jason
Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, 2071 SW Campus Way, Corvallis, OR, USA.
Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry Program, NASA Headquarters, Science Mission Directorate, Earth Science Division, Mail Suite 3Y35, 300 E St., SW, Washington, DC, 20546-0001, USA.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 4;15(1):23846. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-07680-5.
Competition for resources has long been viewed as a dominant mechanism for species exclusion in nature. Laboratory phytoplankton competition experiments have clearly demonstrated the principles of resource-based competitive exclusion, yielding the decades-old 'R* rule' stating that the species able to maintain steady-state biomass at the lowest resource level (R*) will outcompete all other species and that the number of stably coexisting species will equal the number of different limiting resources. However, the notion of resource-based competitive exclusion is clearly violated by natural phytoplankton assemblages that consistently exhibit coexisting species with vastly different resource acquisition potentials. Here, we explain why natural phytoplankton communities do not obey the 'R* rule', why cell-to-cell distancing and predator-prey dynamics prevent resource-based competitive exclusion, and why phytoplankton diversity is theoretically unconstrained within size-specific ecological niches created by predator-prey sets. We conclude this manuscript with an appeal that a more holistic, ecological explanation of competitive exclusion and biodiversity be adopted and taught that nurtures a more thorough understanding and modeling of natural phytoplankton and other microbial communities.
长期以来，资源竞争一直被视为自然界中物种排斥的主要机制。实验室浮游植物竞争实验清楚地证明了基于资源的竞争排斥原理，得出了数十年之久的“R规则”，即能够在最低资源水平（R）维持稳态生物量的物种将胜过所有其他物种，并且稳定共存物种的数量将等于不同限制资源的数量。然而，基于资源的竞争排斥概念显然被自然浮游植物群落所违背，这些群落始终表现出具有截然不同资源获取潜力的共存物种。在此，我们解释了为什么自然浮游植物群落不遵循“R*规则”，为什么细胞间距离和捕食者 - 猎物动态会阻止基于资源的竞争排斥，以及为什么浮游植物多样性在由捕食者 - 猎物组合形成的特定大小生态位内理论上不受限制。我们在本文结尾呼吁采用并讲授一种更全面、生态学的竞争排斥和生物多样性解释，以培养对自然浮游植物和其他微生物群落更深入的理解和建模。
