Table 1. Schematic presentation of the trophic interactions and consortia.

Consortium I	An artificial microbial consortium with species 1 (sp1) and species 2 (sp2) utilize two obligatory nutrients (N1 and N2) with different affinities (marked by different arrows, with solid thick arrows represent large specific growth rates and thinner ones represent smaller growth rates, the same for all schemas).
Consortium II	An artificial microbial consortium with both sp1 and sp2 produce (marked by empty arrows, the same for all schemas) an additional nutrient (N3) that supports growth of species 3 – sp3 (forming a commensal consortium).
Consortium III	An artificial mutualistic microbial consortium, with N3 toxic to sp1 and sp2. An inhibition form of the Monod equation for microbial growth with presence of by-product S* is expressed as24, KI is inhibition constant, with conditional arrows mark inhibition function of N3 on sp1 and sp2's growth (the same for all schemas).
Consortium IV	Model commensal microbial consortium25sp1: Chlorobiphenyls → Chlorobenzoatesp2: Chlorobenzoate →degradation products
Consortium V	Model mutualistic microbial consortium26sp1: PEG + O2 → Glyoxylate + CO2 + H2O (Glyoxylate toxic to sp1)sp2: Glyoxylate + O2 → 2CO2 + H2O