Biodiversity and ecosystem function are often tightly linked — but what happens when space and succession come into play? My research explores this question using the California Pitcher Plant (Darlingtonia californica), whose pitcher shaped leaves host an aquatic community teeming with bacteria and protozoa that help digest trapped insects.

By sampling fifty pitcher leaves across a northern California bog, I measured each leaf’s position, age, environmental conditions, microbial diversity (via 16S rRNA sequencing), and ecosystem function through metabolic activity, protein content, and nutrient cycling. I expected spatial patterns — nearby leaves sharing similar communities and functions — to be more similar in composition than those on opposite sides of the bog.

Instead, the data told a different story. Neither biodiversity nor ecosystem function showed spatial clustering. Instead, leaf age best predicted microbial richness, which increased over time. Despite these successional shifts in community composition, ecosystem function remained remarkably stable.

These results may suggest functional redundancy within the microbial community: many species can perform similar roles. This buffering capacity means that even as biodiversity changes with leaf age, the ecosystem functions persist and remain consistent.