Fig 1. Model scheme.

The left panel is a schematic of the models in Eqs 1 and 2. Resources flow into the system at fixed rate ρ_i, while consumers die at rates η_i N_i. The arrows connecting resources to consumers represent non-zero consumption coefficients C_ij. In this example, all consumers are capable of consuming resource 2, so there is community-wide competition for it. At the same time, consumer 1 is the only consumer that can utilize resource 1 and, similarly, consumer 3 is the only consumer that can deplete resource 3. The right panels are examples of the C matrices resulting from our two different parametrizations. In the generalist case, each entry is an independent sample from the same probability distribution with positive support. In the specialist case, consumer i can consumer resource i more quickly than any other resource. Other than this special resource, consumers consume every other resource at the same rate.