Fig. 5. Effect of the succession of two decomposer communities on the residual substrate amount and biochemistry (scenario 3).

The two communities have the same biochemical signature (50% sugar, 30% lipid, and 20% protein). Plant decomposers (red) produce cellulolytic and lignolytic enzymes. Microbial residues decomposers (Mic. decomposer = blue) produce enzymes that depolymerize lipids, proteins and microbial sugars. The two communities differ in their fitness. Microbial residue decomposers are more competitive than plant decomposers because of their higher carbon use efficiency and lower mortality rate (Table 1). The effect of cheating behavior was tested as follows: a substrate uptake is only possible for the enzyme producer or b uptake is also possible for the cheater but at a lower rate than that of the enzyme producer (dashed uptake arrows). Cheating has a strong effect on communities dynamics and the resulting biochemical composition of substrate. When cheating occurs, plant decomposers are outcompeted by microbes decomposers, what results in the persistence of lignin.