PARENT SESSION
Poster Session 36: Genetics / Population Ecology
Thursday, August 11, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall 220 A-E, Level 2, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Genetic variation among clones of the pitcher plant rotifer Habrotrocha rosa across multiple spatial scales.
Cochran-Stafira, Liane *,1, 2, Cocanig, Christina1, 1 Saint Xavier University, Chicago, Illinois, USA2 Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois, USA
ABSTRACT- Construction of mathematical models that describe metacommunity dynamics requires good data on colonization, extinction (including the role of interspecific interactions), and habitat patch dynamics. One of the most important and difficult to measure parameters for any metacommunity is colonization (dispersal) rate. The leaves of the northern pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea form natural microcosms in which a detritus-based aquatic food web composed of bacteria, protozoa, rotifers, insect larvae, and mites develops. Each pitcher represents an ephemeral habitat patch within the bog landscape, and the food web exists as a metacommunity persisting through the colonization of new pitchers which are formed throughout the growing season. Habrotrocha rosa, a strictly asexual bdelloid rotifer, is an important member of this metacommunity, and provides an ideal organism for tracking dispersal using genetic markers. In this study, we measured the degree of clonal diversity at three spatial scales: among plants; among leaves on a single plant; and within single pitchers. Our data show variations in reproductive rates under constant laboratory conditions and differences in nutritional requirements at all spatial scales, suggesting a relatively high degree of genetic variation among clones. We are currently sequencing five regions of the rotifer genome in order to identify a series of genetic fingerprints for the clones. This will allow us to initiate a field experiment in which tracer clones will be inoculated into pitchers and followed over the course of a growing season.
Key words: metacommunity, Habrotrocha rosa, Sarracenia purpurea, dispersal