Protist Dispersal Detection: University of Michigan Biological Station, July 2024

This dataset contains the results of a field dispersal array assembled in Gates Bog, Pellston, Michigan. The data were collected by a graduate student, and consist of measurements of protist presence or absence in 1mL fluid samples taken from pitcher plants and centrifuge tubes in the array. The dataset contains both initial protist detection from the fluid samples, as well as detection after a 24 hour incubation period. The dataset also contains the positions of each plant and tube used for sample collection and their distances from the established source population at the center of the array. We used the purple pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea, as a model system to explore questions of specialist protist dispersal. Newly opened pitchers are sterile, providing virgin habitat open to community assembly of highly specialized protist species (Peterson 2008). The placement of a known community of protists at the center of an uncolonized array of habitat patches allows us to identify both sources and destinations of dispersing microbes in the array. The purpose of this study is to measure dispersal rates for a subset of pitcher plant protist species.