That's kind of like asking what constitutes tall or short people. Depends on the context. I'd say SAR11 is fast compared to microbes in long term stationary phase. But your question is a good one because it points out that we often have an implicit frame of reference and we're often not aware of it.

Yes! Your last point is what I was trying to get at. A sense of where the frame of reference is for different folks.

I tend to support karen's suggestion (below in this🧵) to calibrate fast-/slow-growth along Milankowitch cycles. we could easily account for the continuum of growth rates by including metric prefixes 😉 but there are 2 issues: 1/2