Life in and around microcosms

Natural microcosms are everywhere; e.g., tree holes, pitchers of carnivorous plants, mines of leaf mining insects, and puddles in which dengue mosquitoes breed. Microcosms vary in their longevity and their external and internal environments. My lab studies microcosms such as the globose enclosed inflorescences of fig trees, the caulinary domatia that house ants in ant-plants, the fungus-farming greenhouses of termites, and the earthen nests of potter and mud dauber wasps. I will use examples of these microcosms to illustrate the ecosystem processes and the biotic and abiotic constraints that determine the community ecology of these small worlds. Natural microcosms are natural replicates of ecosystems and are good model systems to ask and answer questions about a range of questions in ecology and evolution and also allow a multidisciplinary approach towards understanding their biology.