Sarracenia purpurea

Sarracenia purpurea is a carnivorous plant species that is naturally found in nutrient-poor habitats from Florida to Canada. To obtain the essential nutrients needed for growth, it relies on the unique pitcher-shape of its leaves to capture insects. This shape allows the leaf to fill with rainwater, which then acts as a passive trap. Insects that fall into this rainwater are unable to escape - largely because the downward pointing hairs on the hood of the leaf and the leaf's smooth and slippery interior. The insect thus drowns and becomes the plant's prey. The plant then relies on an aquatic food web to decompose the prey, which releases nutrients for the plant to utilize. This food web consists of bacteria, yeast, protozoa, rotifers, and dipteran larvae, which work together as a complete, dynamic, micro-ecosystem.

Scientists in North America have used this system for decades to test ecologically-relevant questions such as understanding predator-prey dynamics, the influence of evolution on community dynamics, commensalism, and community succession. This research has been made possible thanks to the large temperature range of this plant species, and with each leaf acting as an enclosed habitat for a natural microscopic food web. More recently, research with this study system has expanded to Europe. Sarracenia purpurea populations were brought by seed from North America to Europe over 100 years ago. These plants are found in similar abiotic environments to those in North America and their food web microbiome is comparable across continents. These features are providing a unique opportunity to test the generality of food web-, ecosystem-, and plant-microbiome dynamics across large-scale latitudinal- and altitudinal thermal gradient.