Figure 4.

Time series from structured environments reveal a stabilizing influence of “lock-and-key” resource chemical complexity on microbe-resource encounters. Both “monoculture” and “polyculture” hulls (75% confidence intervals) pertain to simple (i.e., labile) resources, and have higher variability in encounter rates than the “lock-and-key” models. This was the case across all modes of dispersal and all modeled forms of trophic complexity (i.e., simple consumer-resource model, cross-feeding, scavenging).