Effects of an invertebrate grazer on the spatial arrangement of a benthic microhabitat.

Abstract

We demonstrated the effect of an aquatic herbivore on the spatial arrangement of benthic algal biomass within artificial stream channels. Transects of ceramic tiles were exposed to a gradient of snail (Physella) densities in a 30 d experiment. We observed positive effects of snails on the mean abundance of "overstory" algae (the filamentous chlorophyte Cladophora and associated epiphytes), an important benthic microhabitat in streams. Snails altered several aspects of the spatial arrangement of overstory algae. Snails reduced the strength of downstream gradients in overstory biomass, as well as residual variability around these gradients. Geostatistical analysis revealed that snails also reduced the strength of spatial dependence, and so reduced spatial heterogeneity of the overstory, at small scales (<40 cm). As a result, organisms inhabiting the overstory might experience a more fragmented habitat landscape at high snail densities. In addition, snails increased the scale of spatial dependence in understory algal biomass (algae remaining on tiles after overstory was removed) from 10 cm to 40 cm. Consumer effects on the spatial arrangement of a microhabitat argue for the inclusion of feedbacks between the biota and the environment in spatially-explicit models.