Co-existence of multiple microbial strains on the same resource in boom-and-bust environments

Recent observations have revealed that closely related strains of the same microbial species can stably coexist in natural and laboratory settings subject to boom-and-bust dynamics and serial dilutions, respectively. However, the possible mechanisms enabling the coexistence of only a handful of strains, but not more, have thus far remained unknown. Here, using a consumer-resource model of microbial ecosystems, we propose that by differentiating on Monod parameters characterizing microbial growth rates in high and low nutrient conditions, strains can coexist in patterns similar to those observed. In our model, boom-and-bust environments create satellite niches due to resource concentrations varying in time. These satellite niches can be occupied by closely related strains, thereby enabling their coexistence. We demonstrate that this result is valid even in complex environments consisting of multiple resources and species. In these complex communities, each species partitions resources differently and creates separate sets of satellite niches for their own strains. While there is no theoretical limit to the number of coexisting strains, in our simulations, we always find between 1 and 3 strains coexisting, consistent with experiments and observations.