Data from: Effects of arthropod inquilines on growth and reproductive effort among metacommunities of the purple pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea var. montana)

Many plant species harbor communities of symbionts that release nutrients used by their host plants. However, the importance of these nutrients to plant growth and reproductive effort is not well understood. Here, we evaluate the relationship between the communities that colonize pitcher plant phytotelmata and the pitcher plants' vegetative growth and flower production to better understand the symbiotic role played by phytotelma communities. We focus on the mountain variety purple pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea var. montana), which occurs in small and isolated populations in Western North Carolina. We found that greater symbiont community diversity is associated with higher flower production the following season. We then examined geographic variation in communities and found that smaller plant populations supported less diverse symbiont communities. We relate our observations to patterns of community diversity predicted by community ecology theory.

诸多植物物种均可承载共生微生物群落，此类群落可释放宿主植物所需的营养物质。然而，此类营养物质对于植物生长与繁殖投入的重要性尚未得到充分阐明。本研究旨在探究定殖于瓶子草捕虫笼积水体（phytotelmata）内的群落，与瓶子草营养生长及开花量之间的关联，以深入阐明积水体群落所发挥的共生功能。本研究聚焦于山地变种紫瓶子草（Sarracenia purpurea var. montana），该物种在北卡罗来纳州西部以小型且孤立的种群形式分布。研究发现，共生群落的多样性越高，其后续季节的开花量便越高。随后，本研究分析了群落的地理分布变异，发现种群规模越小的瓶子草种群，其共生群落的多样性越低。本研究将观测结果与群落生态学理论所预测的群落多样性模式进行了关联分析。