Life Sciences Commons^™

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 …