Explain how both types of organisms might have been able to live and grow in the same soil particle. The soil contained Microenvironments, both oxic and anoxic zones. The two metabolic types co-existed in the soil because each had colonized a zone suitable to its metabolism. In class on Monday we discussed a research paper where bacteria capable of degrading chlorinated pesticides were isolated from soil under two different conditions, liquid enrichment versus dilution and plating. Dilution and plating allowed for a diverse number of different prokaryotes, each capable of degrading the pesticide, to grow because they were spread out on a plate.
Liquid enrichment selects only the fastest growing member of the population.