Graduation Date
Fall 2017
Document Type
Thesis
Program
Master of Science degree with a major in Biology
Committee Chair Name
Dr. Michael Camann
Committee Chair Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Second Committee Member Name
Dr. Erik Jules
Second Committee Member Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Third Committee Member Name
Dr. Michael Mesler
Third Committee Member Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Fourth Committee Member Name
Dr. Edward Metz
Fourth Committee Member Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Keywords
Darlingtonia californica, Pitcher plant, Aquatic, Invertebrates, Community, Ecology, Rogue River-Siskiyou, Six Rivers, Shasta-Trinity, Plumas
Subject Categories
Biology
Abstract
The California pitcher plant, Darlingtonia californica, provides a unique setting to research community ecology because it harbors small ponds of water, or phytotelmata, in its modified leaves. Each phytotelma hosts a unique community of various invertebrates who live among carcasses of drowned plant prey. These pitchers and their inquiline communities are relatively small yet abundant in the wild, resulting in an ideal natural setup for community composition comparisons. There have been no previous studies that research D. californica inquiline communities across multiple geographic regions concurrently. This study sought to survey phytotelma communities throughout the range of D. californica at three spatial scales- regions (the largest geographic scale), fens (a more localized scale), and pitchers (the smallest scale). Community composition metrics were calculated to compare richness, evenness, diversity, and abundance among the four regions. Seven taxa and 14,358 individuals were recorded in the 93 pitchers sampled in National Forests throughout southern Oregon and northern California. Non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination showed slight groupings of samples within regions. Community composition of pitchers was more similar within regions than between regions and within fens than between fens. Statistical analyses showed that region predicted variance between pitchers, and that all of the paired combinations of regions were significantly different from one another except for the two highest elevation regions. Further tests showed some significant differences in individual species’ abundance between regions, but not in univariate community composition metrics. The D. californica phytotelma communities were then compared to those of other pitcher plant species.
Citation Style
APA
Recommended Citation
Brandt, Stefani Marie, "Darlingtonia californica phytotelma organisms: spatial relations within the metacommunity" (2017). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 97.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/97