Figure 5.

(a) μ–s relationship of E. coli (using original Monod model (—) and Monod model extended with s_min (- - -)) and C. heintzii (Monod model ()). All parameters were determined at D=0.075 h⁻¹. C. heintzii will outcompete E. coli at s<s_e, whereas E. coli will outcompete C. heintzii at s>s_e. Coexistence is theoretically possible at D_e with a steady-state substrate concentration s_e. Kinetic parameters of the two competitors are listed in Table 2. (b) Zoom into the 0–10 μg l⁻¹ concentration range of Figure 5a. At very low substrate concentration (0–5 μg l⁻¹), the classical Monod kinetics predicts for both strains virtually the same specific growth rates and s_e is 5.0 μg l⁻¹ suggesting coexistence, which is in contradiction to the competition experiments shown in Figure 2a.