The common bladderwort (Utricularia vulgaris) is a free-floating carnivorous aquatic plant found in nutrient-poor, acidic peat pools. To compensate for the lack of dissolved minerals, it has evolved highly specialized, submerged bladder-like traps that capture and digest tiny aquatic invertebrates, such as water fleas (Daphnia).
Describe how you could estimate the total population size of common bladderwort plants in a defined, shallow peat pool.
Suggest and explain how digesting aquatic invertebrates helps the bladderwort to grow and survive in water with very low concentrations of dissolved mineral ions.
