Non-additive microbial community responses to environmental complexity

This study investigates how microbial community growth yield and diversity respond to increasing environmental complexity (number of available nutrients). Using hundreds of synthetic consortia *in vitro*, the researchers found that growth yield can remain constant or increase non-additively with complexity, while taxonomic diversity is often lower than expected. Metrics for epistatic interactions between environments were developed and used to compare experimental results to simulations using consumer resource models. Key factors like species similarity, specialization, and metabolic interactions modulate non-additivity and community response. The findings highlight that environmental complexity alone is insufficient for maintaining diversity and provide guidance for designing and controlling microbial ecosystems.

Alan R. Pacheco, Melisa L. Osborne, Daniel Segrè