Effect of source habitat spatial heterogeneity and species diversity on the temporal stability of aquatic‐to‐terrestrial subsidy by emerging aquatic insects. Issue 3 (25th May 2020) - Uno, Hiromi
Abstract: Duration and temporal stability of resource subsidy largely affect the response of recipient communities. Factors that influence the temporal dynamics of resource subsidy from aquatic‐to‐terrestrial habitats by emerging aquatic insects were examined in this study. By measuring the flux of aquatic insect emergence from six habitats in a river over summer, we found that the timing of emergence varied by habitats for each dominant taxa, and that different species emerged at different times of the summer sequentially. We found that spatial variation in the emergence timing caused by the spatial heterogeneity of the water temperature, and so on in the source habitat can temporally stabilize the subsidy of each species from the whole river. Similarly, we found that the variation in emergence timing between species contributed to the temporal stability of subsidies from each habitat. The contribution of spatial heterogeneity to the temporal stability varied by the focal species and the contribution of species diversity varied by habitats. This study demonstrates how the ecological function of spatial heterogeneity and species diversity crosses the boundary of ecosystems by temporally stabilizing resource subsidies. Abstract : We show how the spatial heterogeneity of the original habitat of resource subsidy and the species diversity of the vector organisms contribute to the temporal stability of the resource subsidy. The emergence time of aquatic insects from specific habitat is limited for one species, but the same species emerged at different times from different habitats and supported more sustaining resource subsidy to riparian ecosystems. Furthermore, different species emerged at different times, and in total, the diversity of the aquatic insects contributed to more temporal stable resource subsidy.