DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Pitcher Plants: A Window into Metacommunity Processes

生态学家了解控制植物和动物多样性的许多过程。然而，他们才刚刚开始了解微生物的多样性。这项研究将探索微生物和大型生物共同的过程。真菌类非常适合这个角色，因为它包括酵母（和许多细菌一样小），大型森林蘑菇（估计与蓝鲸大小相当），以及介于两者之间的所有大小。本项目主要研究生活在食肉植物叶片中的酵母。它将在几个空间尺度上量化酵母的生物多样性，并将研究酵母之间的竞争和单个酵母的扩散作为控制多样性的机制。由于酵母是微观的，它们被认为具有广泛的传播能力；不同的分散能力可能导致不同的竞争能力。除了利用新技术探索自然界的生物多样性外，还将在微观环境中对酵母进行实验操作。该研究有望将微生物生态学与植物和动物生态学联系起来，并揭示微生物生物多样性的许多过程。该项目将通过与学生、教育工作者和广大公众的联系，对社区产生更广泛的影响。它支持一名研究生研究员的工作，还将包括本科生和当地公立学校教师。此外，研究结果将在整个项目过程中向当地科学公众、当地普通公众和当地青年展示。

Ecologists understand many of the processes that control plant and animal diversity. However, they are only beginning to understand microbial diversity. This study will explore processes common to microbes and larger organisms. The group Fungi is well suited to this role because it includes yeasts (as small as many bacteria), large forest mushrooms (estimated to rival blue whales in size), and all sizes in between. This project focuses on yeasts living in the leaves of carnivorous plants. It will quantify yeast biodiversity at several spatial scales, and will investigate both competition between yeasts and dispersal of individual yeasts as mechanisms that control diversity. Because yeasts are microscopic, they are expected to have a wide range of dispersal abilities; different dispersal abilities may result in a range of competitive abilities. In addition to using new technologies to explore biodiversity in nature, yeasts will be manipulated experimentally in microcosms. This research promises both to connect microbial ecology to plant and animal ecology and to reveal many processes contributing to microbial biodiversity. This project will have broader impacts on the community through connections with students, educators, and the public at large. It supports the work of one graduate student researcher, and will also include undergraduates and local public school teachers. In addition, results will be presented to both the local scientific public, the local lay public, and local youth through the course of the project.