uid=HFR,o=lter,dc=ecoinformatics,dc=org all public read doi:10.6073/pasta/0a3a20100bfa1f8cde5c0c884ca4f4a3 Aaron Ellison https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4151-6081 Nicholas Gotelli https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5409-7456 Jessica Butler Researcher 2023 English

Linkages between detritus-based ("brown") food webs and producer-based ("green") food webs are critical components of ecosystem functionality, but these linkages are difficult to study because soil is opaque and brown food webs are poorly characterized. We used the well-defined detritus-based food web that forms in water-filled leaves of the pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea to directly study how food web structure affects nitrogen (N) transformation and N-uptake by the plant itself. We used isotopically-enriched prey (detritus) and soluble inorganic N to test three predictions of the hypotheses that N uptake efficiency (UE) by S. purpurea is enhanced by the presence of a complete food web in its pitchers: (1) presence of top trophic levels increases UE of prey-derived, but not inorganic, N; (2) UE is contingent on availability of different forms of N; and (3) congeneric Sarracenia species that do not host food webs differ from S. purpurea in UE of prey-derived N. Surprisingly, none of these predictions were borne out in a 3-month greenhouse experiment. We conclude that the higher trophic-level members of this brown food web actively process detritus, but it is the activity of the microbial component of this web that ultimately influences N-availability in S. purpurea.

carnivorous plants detritus food webs nitrogen cycling nitrogen-15 LTER controlled vocabulary inorganic nutrients LTER core area Harvard Forest HFR LTER USA HFR default

This dataset is released to the public under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 (No Rights Reserved). Please keep the dataset creators informed of any plans to use the dataset. Consultation with the original investigators is strongly encouraged. Publications and data products that make use of the dataset should include proper acknowledgement.

Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal https://spdx.org/licenses/CC0-1.0.html CC0-1.0 https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/exist/apps/datasets/showData.html?id=hf098 Harvard Forest Greenhouse. Coordinates based on WGS84 datum. -72.19 -72.19 +42.53 +42.53 330 330 meter 2005 2007 genus Sarracenia species purpurea northern pitcher plant species flava yellow pitcher plant species alata pale pitcher plant complete Information Manager Harvard Forest

324 North Main Street Petersham MA 01366 USA

(978) 724-3302 hf-im@lists.fas.harvard.edu Harvard Forest

324 North Main Street Petersham MA 01366 USA

(978) 724-3302 (978) 724-3595 https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu

Harvard Forest

324 North Main Street Petersham MA 01366 USA

(978) 724-3302 (978) 724-3595 https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu https://ror.org/059cpzx98 pointOfContact The Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program examines ecological dynamics in the New England region resulting from natural disturbances, environmental change, and human impacts. National Science Foundation LTER grants: DEB-8811764, DEB-9411975, DEB-0080592, DEB-0620443, DEB-1237491, DEB-1832210. hf098-01-foodweb.csv food web hf098-01-foodweb.csv 2664 b463a15020e752169c2ce8ee457a344c 1 \r\n column , https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/data/p09/hf098/hf098-01-foodweb.csv treat treatment applied to each plant 15IN 15N added as NH4NO3 15prey 15N added as Drosophila prey 15prey with IN 15N added as Drosophila prey with natural abundance NH4NO3 prey with 15IN natural abundance Drosophila prey with 15N-NH4NO3 species species of plant SP Sarracenia purpurea without food webs SPfw S. purpurea with food webs SA S. alata SF S. flava pit.15n.fed amount (mg of N) of 15N-NH4NO3 tracer fed to pitchers during three months milligram .01 real NA missing value pit.15nprey.fed amount of 15N-Drosophila (mg of N) fed to pitchers during three months milligram .01 real NA missing value plant.n mg of nitrogen (N) within entire plant milligram .01 real NA missing value plant.15n mg of 15N tracer within entire plant milligram .01 real NA missing value pit.n concentration (%) of N within living pitchers dimensionless .01 real NA missing value pit.15n mg of 15N tracer within all pitchers produced during the three months milligram .01 real NA missing value rt.rh.15m mg of 15N tracer within roots and rhizomes milligram .01 real NA missing value at.15n.ff atom% 15N of Fletcherimyia fletcheri larvae dimensionless .01 real NA missing value 51 community short-term measurement https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/exist/apps/datasets/showData.html?id=hf109 https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/exist/apps/datasets/showData.html?id=hf096