Chapter 4 Sustained Research on Stream Communities A Model System and The Comparative Approach

• Published in: Advances in ecological research Vol. 41; pp. 175 - 312
• Main Author: Hildrew, Alan G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Elsevier BV 2009
• Subjects: Acidity; Anthropogenic factors; Aquatic ecosystems; Comparative studies; Creeks & streams; Ecology; Environmental conditions; Macroinvertebrates; United Kingdom > UK; British Isles, England, Broadstone Stream; British Isles, Scotland; British Isles, Wales; British Isles, England
• ISSN: 0065-2504; 2163-582X
• DOI: 10.1016/S0065-2504(09)00404-8

This paper describes an intensive study of an apparently "simple" stream community--a model system--placed in the context of an extensive study of a suite of progressively more diverse systems--a comparative approach. The main field sites were in the Ashdown Forest of southern England, where a combination of natural and anthropogenic factors produced a gradient of stream acidity along which the stream communities lay. Further streams, primarily in Wales and Scotland, were included as comparative sites when a wider range of environmental conditions was necessary than was available in the Ashdown Forest. The acidic and fishless Broadstone Stream community had a small core of macroinvertebrate species, dominated by large-bodied predatory invertebrates, whereas the less acidic comparative sites were more diverse and had fish. Smaller metazoans--the meiofauna--added considerably to overall diversity but the overall gradient from relatively simple (acidic) to complex (circumneutral) systems remained. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]