Colonization dynamics of river benthos in response to local changes in bed characteristics

1. The effects of small-scale variation in the nature of a river bed upon the colonization dynamics of benthic invertebrates were explored through a series of microhabitat implants placed in a small river in southern Ontario. The implants presented variations in the levels of four microhabitat features: substrate particle size, current regime, added food and light. The sixteen possible combinations of these variables were replicated five times, for a total of eighty implants.
2. After 14 days of exposure, some of the controlled variables had been modified and a number of other variables (sand, fine (FPOM) and coarse (CPOM) particulate organic matter) had been added by the river.
3. Benthic diversity differed among the implants, with sand and CPOM accounting for 15.5% of the variation. Benthic density was more uniform and was weakly related only to added food. Application of the CANOCO program to the data set suggested that, in general, the environmental variables manipulated in this study were not the key factors influencing colonization, although they may have been important in non-linear combination.
4. A number of important positive associations were evident among colonizing species, some of which are thought to reflect those of predator and prey.
5. Control of colonization appears to be through multiple factors (abiotic, biotic, autochthonous, allochthonous) that differ in nature according to species, and which underline the complexity of selection responses of individual taxa to local variations in bed structure. Researchers must acknowledge this multifactorial organization and dynamic nature if workable models of lotic community structure and development are to be forthcoming.