Jesse Montgomery Bio 1615 Saturday 11am

Construction costs, payback times, and leaf economics of carnivorous plants. Jim D. Karagatzides and Aaron M. Ellison, 2009.
Introduction: Understanding how various plant species make different carbon and nutrient investments is a large part of the science of plant ecology. Two measurements are construction costs (carbon needed to produce a gram of tissue) and payback times on the amount of photosynthetic reactions needed to recover the carbon deficit from production of new tissues. A structures total payback times can be calculated by dividing total construction costs (CCmass) by net photosynthesis (Amass). This is the first study to simultaneously measure the CCmass and Amass of carnivorous plants and their trap structures. The four hypotheses of this study are: 1) Dual purpose (carnivory/photosythesis) structures should be highly costly in comparison to similar structures found in purely photo synthetic plants. 2) In plants with separate structures, the photosynthetic structure should have a higher CCmass than the carnivorous trap. 3) Roots should have a relatively lower CCmass than the trap of the same plant. 4) There should be a clear tradeoff between CCmass and Amass. Material and Methods: In this study the construction costs of 15 different plant species were examined. The plants consisted of species from three families and two orders, all grown in a climate controlled greenhouse. Plants included two Asian pitcher plants (both Nepenthes hybrids), the sundew Drosera filiformis, the Venus fly trap Dionaea muscipula, and 11 North American pitcher plants (most of which were from the genus Sarracenia). Maximum photosynthetic rates were taken from one trap and one leaf of the fully mature plant in between

9am and 2pm from the 23rd to the 25th of July 2006 using a gas analysis system. The traps, leaves, roots, and rhizomes were harvested directly after photosynthetic rates were measured and promptly rinsed, dried, then each structure was powdered separately. The powder of each structure and species were then combusted, and the amount of heat and light given off were used to determine carbon content, and the remaining ash used to measure nutrient (nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, and other trace minerals) content. Results: The average ash content of the trap structures varied widely among the species measured and ranged from 1.4% to 9.5%. The average nitrogen content of trap structures varied less broadly in a range of 0.58% to 1.31%. Average net photosynthesis or Amass was low but still varied among all carnivorous plant species in the study. Differences among photosynthetic rates and average nutrient content also lead to significant differences among species for CCmass of traps, roots, and rhizomes. There was found to be a high level of variability among trap structures but fewer significant differences in construction costs among below ground structures. Carnivorous traps had a much lower CCmass than the associated photosynthetic structure of the plant. No strong relationship could be determined between photosynthetic rates and construction costs among plant species, but significant differences in payback time rates were found between species. Discussion: In the first hypothesis of carnivorous trap structures, due their complex structure, having a higher CCmass than purely photosynthetic structures found on noncarnivorous plants was unsupported. Trap structures had a lower CCmass than leaves of noncarnivorous plants. The second hypothesis of trap structures having a lower CCmass than photosynthetic structures was supported. For the third hypothesis of trap structures having a higher average CCmass than root structures, was neither supported nor unsupported. Findings of this study did not show trap

structures consistently cost more than underground structures. The fourth hypothesis of there being a clear relationship between CCmass and Amass was also unconfirmed. Carnivorous plants did show to have both a lower Amass and CCmass than noncarnivorous plants. Bibliography: http://www.amjbot.org/content/96/9/1612.full