Predictable changes in trophic community structure along a spatial disturbance gradient in streams

Abstract

Summary1. We assessed insect and resource standing stocks along a spatial gradient of flood disturbance in 19 sub‐alpine Swedish streams to test the prediction that change in trophic structure arises from the joint action of disturbance, which affect basal resources, and resource‐control, which ties the response of the consumers to the response of the resources.2. Trophic structure, quantified as scores of non‐metric multidimensional scaling based on the biomass of insect trophic groups, changed predictably along the disturbance gradient. In early summer, predators and algae feeders decreased relative to suspension feeders with increasing disturbance; in autumn, algae feeders decreased relative to leaf feeders with increasing disturbance.3. Across the disturbance gradient, the biomass of algae‐, deposit‐ and leaf‐feeders was principally controlled by the availability of the respective resource (algae, fine detritus and coarse detritus), while disturbance only had subsidiary effects on algae feeders in early summer.4. Overall, patterns in trophic‐group biomass along the disturbance gradient were more likely to reflect indirect effects of disturbance via impact on the resources, which reverberated to the consumers because of resource‐control, rather than direct effects. In contrast with the view that stream communities are the result of stochastic colonization following disturbance events, in the study streams the trophic structure of insect assemblages is predictable and partly organized by resource‐control across a broad range of disturbance conditions.