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Harvard Forest REU Symposium Abstract 2010

  • Title: Community Assembly in Relation to Prey Capture Dynamics and the Importance of Biodiversity on Ecosystem Functioning of Sarracenia purpurea
  • Author: Roxanne Ardeshiri (University of California - Berkeley)
  • Abstract:

    A pressing question that ecologists have mulled over is whether it is more important to invest conservation efforts on sustaining more taxonomically diverse communities, or ecologically diverse communities? This project aims to tackle that question through use of the Northern Pitcher Plant, Sarracenia purpurea as a model ecosystem. We experimentally manipulated the Pitcher Plant inquiline community in the greenhouse to create treatments whose communities corresponded to varying levels of species richness and functional diversity. Decomposition of carpenter ant prey was then measured as an ecosystem response factor, and represents ecosystem functionality. Some unique aspects of this experimental design are that prey decomposition has never been measured as an ecosystem response factor in a Pitcher Plant community and that all species used in this experiment have a shared evolutionary history.

    Aside from this project, we conducted a field experiment to observe how Pitcher Plant communities assemble themselves naturally and to see if increased prey capture leads to assembly of more diverse communities. Five field sites were set up at both Harvard Pond, and Tom Swamp Bog. Each site contained a real Pitcher Plant, a fake Pitcher Plant, and a fake Pitcher Plant with pseudo nectar as an attractant for luring prey. After a 28-day period, a species and prey inventory was taken and biodiversity was looked at between sites and treatments. The results show a significant difference in alpha diversity between the real and fake Pitcher Plant treatments, which are associated with high and low prey capture rates, respectively. Interestingly, there was a lower number of Diptera larvae present at Harvard Pond. The reason for this may be due to the presence of the Pitcher Plant moth, Exyra fax, which we found to have only colonized Pitcher Plants at Harvard Pond by the end of this experiment.

  • Research Category: Biodiversity Studies