Population densities and density-area relationships in a community with advective dispersal and variable mosaics of resource patches.

Abstract

Many communities comprise species that select resources that are patchily distributed in an environment that is otherwise unsuitable or suboptimal. Effects of this patchiness can depend on the characteristics of patch arrays and animal movements, and produce non-intuitive outcomes in which population densities are unrelated to resource abundance. Resource mosaics are predicted to have only weak effects, however, where patches are ephemeral or organisms are transported advectively. The running waters of streams and benthic invertebrates epitomize such systems, but empirical tests of resource mosaics are scarce. We sampled 15 common macroinvertebrates inhabiting distinct detritus patches at four sites within a sand-bed stream, where detritus formed a major resource of food and living space. At each site, environmental variables were measured for 100 leaf packs; invertebrates were counted in 50 leaf packs. Sites differed in total abundance of detritus, leaf pack sizes and invertebrate densities. Multivariate analysis indicated that patch size was the dominant environmental variable, but invertebrate densities differed significantly between sites even after accounting for patch size. Leaf specialists showed positive and strong density-area relationships, except where the patch size range was small and patches were aggregated. In contrast, generalist species had weaker and variable responses to patch sizes. Population densities were not associated with total resource abundance, with the highest densities of leaf specialists in sites with the least detritus. Our results demonstrate that patchy resources can affect species even in communities where species are mobile, have advective dispersal, and patches are relatively ephemeral.