Meeting Abstract
Several lineages of plants have adapted to low-nutrient and acidic environments by carnivory, which makes up for the lack of phosphorus and nitrogen. Reliance on carnivory is expected to exert evolutionary pressure for increased prey capture efficiency: the more specialized and active the trapping mechanism, the higher the success rate must be in order to offset the cost of developing and setting such traps. The bladderwort Utricularia vulgaris, for example, is a free-floating aquatic plant, which forms small (approximately 1- 4 mm) bladders to suction capture zooplankton. The suction traps are structurally intricate and energy-intensive, hence the expectation that their capture efficiency (captures per feeding strike) is high. By combining imagery of captured prey and acoustic recording of feeding strikes, we are able to measure the capture efficiency of bladderwort for the first time. The data further document the role of trap size and trap age in the life history of U. vulgaris. Our measurements of the capture mechanism complement published studies of its genetic basis, making this species an excellent case study of rapid adaptation to a specialized niche.
