BRS Leonora Bittleston: Assembly, ecosystem functioning, and coexistence of plant-associated microbial communities

host: Diane Srivastava

Title talk: Assembly, ecosystem functioning, and coexistence of plant-associated microbial communities

Abstract: Microbes profoundly shape our planet’s ecosystems, yet we still do not understand the processes driving microbial community assembly and ecosystem functioning. Plant-associated microbiomes cover much of Earth’s surface, and affect the health of their hosts. Using the microcosms contained in carnivorous pitcher plants as a model system for community ecology, we investigated the host and environmental factors influencing microbial community assembly, functioning, and coexistence. We found that convergence of habitat type led to broad convergence of microbial communities at a global scale, while at a local scale characteristics of host species led to distinct microbiome differences. Historical contingency and strain-level diversification affected microbial metabolic functions, and microbial communities with certain functions altered host plant growth. Lastly, coexistence was affected by niche variability, with more complex media and temperature fluctuations leading to higher diversity. 

Short biography: Leonora Bittleston is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Boise State University in Idaho. She is interested in how species interactions affect communities and ecosystems, and her research group focuses on plant and microbial community ecology. She earned her B.S. from the University of California, Berkeley, her PhD from Harvard University, and completed a McDonnell Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship at MIT.