∞ generated and posted on 2016.02.02 ∞
Period during the batch growth of cellular organisms, such as bacteria, where growth rate equals death rate.
Operationally, stationary phase is often the point at which bacterial growth ceases, but death has not yet begun, size zero birth equals zero death.
In chemostats, by contrast, a stationary phase is attained by balance between bacterial growth and bacterial wash out from the chemostat growth vessel, where washout is equivalent to "death" so long as presence within the chemostat is concerned.