Figure 5.

Comparison of growth parameters to Liebig's law of the minimum. Experimental values for P. inhibens were compared to modeled ones for (a) maximal optical density (OD_max), (b) cellular dry weight at OD_max and (c) maximal linear growth rate (μ_lin) across the studied concentration range of NH₄⁺ and PO₄³⁻. The diagonal red line represents the exact match of measured values to model prediction for single nutrient-limited growth based on Liebig's law of the minimum. For data points above this line, predicted values were higher than measured, whereas measured values exceeded the model prediction below this line. A more detailed comparison of experimental values with those predicted by Liebig's law of the minimum is shown in Fig. S4 (Supporting Information).