[1] Stream ecotones, specifically the lateral floodplain and subsurface hyporheic zone, can be important sites for nitrogen (N) removal via denitrification, but their role in streams with constructed floodplains has not been examined. We studied denitrification in the hyporheic zone and floodplains of an agriculturally influenced headwater stream in Indiana, USA, that had floodplains added as part of a "two-stage ditch" restoration project. To examine the potential for N removal in the hyporheic zone, we seasonally measured denitrification rates and nitrate concentrations by depth into the stream sediments. We found that nitrate concentration and denitrification rates declined with depth into the hyporheic zone, but denitrification was still measureable to a depth of at least 20 cm. We also measured denitrification rates on the restored floodplains over the course of a flood (pre, during, and post-inundation), and also compared denitrification rates between vegetated and non-vegetated areas of the floodplain. We found that floodplain denitrification rates increased over the course of a floodplain inundation event, and that the presence of surface water increased denitrification rates when vegetation was present. Stream ecotones in midwestern, agriculturally influenced streams have substantial potential for N removal via denitrification, particularly when they are hydrologically connected with high-nitrate surface water.

Amidst the global extinction crisis, climate change will expose ecosystems to more frequent and intense extreme climatic events, such as heatwaves. Yet, whether predator species loss-a prevailing characteristic of the extinction crisis-will exacerbate the ecological consequences of extreme climatic events remains largely unknown. Here, we show that the loss of predator species can interact with heatwaves to moderate the compositional stability of ecosystems. We exposed multitrophic stream communities, with and without a dominant predator species, to realistic current and future heatwaves and found that heatwaves destabilised algal communities by homogenising them in space. However, this happened only when the predator was absent.Additional heatwave impacts on multiple aspects of stream communities, including changes to the structure of algal and macroinvertebrate communities, as well as total algal biomass and its temporal variability, were not apparent during heatwaves and emerged only after the heatwaves had passed. Taken together, our results suggest that the ecological consequences of heatwaves can amplify over time as their impacts propagate through biological interaction networks, but the presence of predators can help to buffer such impacts. These findings underscore the importance of conserving trophic structure, and highlight the potential for species extinctions to amplify the effects of climate change and extreme events.