Dynamics of food webs of Sarracenia purpurea

• Investigators: Jessica Butler, Aaron Ellison, Nicholas Gotelli
• Contact: Aaron Ellison
• Start date: 2003-05-01
• End date: ongoing
• Location: Tom Swamp Tract (Harvard Forest) and Swift River Bog (Belchertown MA)
• Latitude: +42.27 to +42.51
• Longitude: -72.34 to -72.21
• Elevation:
• Taxa: Acarina, Bdelloidea, Chironomidae, Culicidae, Formicidae, Sarcophagidae, Sarraceniaceae, Fletcherimyia fletcheri, Habrotrocha rosa, Metriocnemus knabi, Myrmica lobifrons, Sarracenia purpurea, Sarraceniopus gibsoni, Wyeomyia smithii
• Keywords: bogs, competition, food web, predation
• Abstract:

  A three-year research program to determine how a novel stressor - atmospheric deposition of nutrients - is changing the dynamics of the detritus-based food web that has co-evolved with its host, the northern pitcher-plant Sarracenia purpurea. We will test three null hypotheses: (1) Nitrogen derived from atmospheric sources and nitrogen from captured prey are used equivalently by the Sarracenia food web and the plant itself; (2) The trajectory of assembly of the Sarracenia food web is independent of initial starting composition, habitat type, and the type of, and rate at which, nutrients are supplied; (3) Host plant growth morphology is independent of food web structure and nutrient supply.

  This project is a continuation of our previous NSF-funded research (DEB 98-05722 and DEB-98-08504), and will use results derived from two new field experiments and two new greenhouse experiments to develop Markov models of community assembly and coupled differential equation models of food web dynamics. These models will be used to predict the responses of integrated communities to environmental stress. The research will reveal the importance of anthropogenic stressors on co-evolved systems, and contribute to a deeper understanding of the assembly of food webs by contrasting effects of top-down and bottom-up forces on the dynamics of non-equilibrial assemblages.

• Methods:
• Related datasets: