RUI Collaborative Research: Inquiline Communities in Changeable Pitchers: Do Nutrients Link Community Assembly to Dynamic Habitats

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PIs: Gotelli, N.J., and A.M. EllisonInstitutions: University of Vermont and Mt. Holyoke CollegeProposal Numbers: DEB - 9808504 & 9805722Theories of community assembly will be expanded by examining northern pitcher plants and the organisms that live within them. This work will develop models of the inquiline organisms that inhabit pitchers while conducting field and laboratory experiments to elucidate the factors driving community colonization, persistence, growth, and dynamics particularly as related to in-plant nutrient dynamics. This work will provide an overview of the linkages between inquiline communities and their host pitcher plants. Considerations of plant performance with different inquiline communities will expand upon previous efforts that have emphasized the animal component of these associations. Markovian models on individual leaves will be combined with matrix models of pitcher-plant growth to assess overall plant growth and the roles of N and P limitation in these bog habitats. More generally, the data gathered will enable the development, refinement, and testing of a mathematical model of community assembly in dynamic habitats. This model will integrate a broad range of ecological features and will eventually be applicable to a diversity of community assemblages.