  We point out that a simple and generic strategy to lower the risk for
extinction consists in the developing a dormant stage in which the organism is
unable to multiply but may die. The dormant organism is protected against the
poisonous environment. The result is to increase the survival probability of
the entire population by introducing a type of zero reproductive fitness. This
is possible, because the reservoir of dormant individuals act as a buffer that
can cushion fatal fluctuations in the number of births and deaths which without
the dormant population would have driven the entire population to extinction.
