The paradox of the plankton: Fluctuations of phosphorus availability maintain diversity of phytoplankton in flow‐through cultures1

Competition experiments with phytoplankton under steady state conditions have largely verified the competitive exclusion principle. Coexistence of species limited by different resources contributes little to the explanation of the natural diversity of phytoplankton. It is shown by multispecies experiments in flow‐through cultures that pulsed input of a key nutrient allows the coexistence of species competing for the same resource.