Northern Pitcher plants Sarracenia Purpurea help sustain the food web functions of midges, pitcher-plant mosquitoes, mites and many other living organisms (Addicott, 1974) and collect rainwater to create biodiversity in the plant. The diverse bacterial community in the liquid sub-habitat of the S. Purpurea plant cavity allows us to better study the microbial responses to press (long-term) disturbances and pulse (short-term) disturbances. We randomly selected 12 pitchers at Barney’s Lake, Beaver Island, MI, and applied the following treatments: a press disturbance with a CuSO4 application in the leaf cavity, a pulse disturbance with a heated mixing of the pitcher fluid, and a control group that was left undisturbed. Microbial communities were measured before and after the disturbances using DNA extraction, PCR and gel electrophoresis to amplify the v4 region of the 16s rRNA and DNA sequencing. Once 16s rRNA genes are processed through the NCBI sequence read archive, we expect to find a majority of Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Firmicutes (Krieger & Kourtev 2011). The functions of these bacteria range from nitrogen fixers to decomposers which help break down organic matter inside the cavity and keep the pitcher alive (Buckley et al. 2003). We also expect to see a significant drop in bacteria in the pulse disturbance but a high resilience (fast recovery) while the microbial communities affected by the press disturbance may never recover to their initial amount and find stability at an alternative state. Understanding bacterial resistance and resilience can serve as a baseline for how ecological disturbances, such as climate change, may affect their diversity in the future.