Context specific effects of substrate composition on the taxonomic and functional diversity of macroinvertebrate communities in temperate lowland streams.

ABSTRACT: Substrate composition has been widely recognised as a primary variable shaping lotic macroinvertebrate communities at the habitat unit level. However, fundamental understanding of how communities inhabiting mineralogical habitats (i.e., gravel, sand and silt) are structured across differing rivers is lacking. Moreover, research largely focusses on gravel beds and fine sediment in general (<2 mm) and as a result detailed field observations specifically of the sand and silt fractions are lacking. Using data from five UK streams collated from published studies, we assess taxonomic and functional biodiversity (alpha and beta diversity) at the habitat unit level (as defined by substrate composition of sand, silt and gravel). We found that the composition of taxonomic communities were clearly di

SUBMITTER: Mathers KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11349607 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature