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Theses and Dissertations

2021

Ecology

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Microbial Communities Hosted By Carnivorous Pitcher Plants: Diversity, Recruitment, Functions And Succession In Sarracenia Purpurea Microbiomes, Jacob Jeffrey Grothjan Dec 2021

Microbial Communities Hosted By Carnivorous Pitcher Plants: Diversity, Recruitment, Functions And Succession In Sarracenia Purpurea Microbiomes, Jacob Jeffrey Grothjan

Theses and Dissertations

The pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea supplements nutrient acquisition through carnivory, capturing insect prey which are digested by a food web community of eukaryotes and bacteria. Analysis of both bacterial and eukaryotic diversity, and an understanding of bacterial recruitment into pitchers and succession of bacterial and eukaryotic communities over time have not been well explored. This thesis presents three studies designed to address these gaps using field sampling and manipulative greenhouse experiments. Study I compared bacterial and eukaryotic composition and diversity of pitcher communities within and between populations of plants in two distinct wetland habitats. Genetic sequence analysis revealed an underappreciated …


Acoustic Analysis Of Saproxylic Arthropod Diversity In North And Central American Pine Forests, Kristy Marie Mcandrew Apr 2021

Acoustic Analysis Of Saproxylic Arthropod Diversity In North And Central American Pine Forests, Kristy Marie Mcandrew

Theses and Dissertations

Biodiversity of arthropods living in dead wood is often understudied despite their potential effects on ecological processes such as wood decomposition and nutrient cycling. More time-efficient and less destructive methods are needed to study these saproxylic organisms to fully understand their global diversity. Because ecoacoustic methods have never been applied to saproxylic communities before, field and analytical methods such as waveguides, and soundproofing were developed, tested, and optimized. After developed methods were implemented in the field, Pearson's correlation tests were conducted to compare ecoacoustic index performance to traditional biodiversity indices. We found five significant correlations, all of which occurred at …