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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Effects Of Mass Death On Community Structure And Ecosystem Function, Abby Kimpton Jones
Effects Of Mass Death On Community Structure And Ecosystem Function, Abby Kimpton Jones
Theses and Dissertations
Death and decomposition are natural processes that are generally well-understood. However, large events of death, such as mass mortality events (MMEs) are increasing in frequency and their impacts on the ecosystem are largely unknown. These events may have both bottom-up effects from increased nutrient input as well as top-down effects from loss of an ecological functional group by the affected population. Different functional MMEs may result in different top-down effects, creating cascading effects. In Chapter 1, I test the hypothesis that scavenger and herbivore simulated MMEs generate novel bottom-up and top-down effects. Results indicate that MMEs have a significant effect …
Microbial Communities Hosted By Carnivorous Pitcher Plants: Diversity, Recruitment, Functions And Succession In Sarracenia Purpurea Microbiomes, Jacob Jeffrey Grothjan
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 …