Aquatic beetles influence colonization of disparate taxa in small lentic systems

Abstract

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Temperature but not nutrient addition affects abundance and assemblage structure of colonizing aquatic insects

“…In our results, we also include P values for abundance analyses corrected for family‐wise error rates (Benjamini‐Hochberg; Benajmini and Hochberg 1995), along with estimated effect sizes () for all analyses. However, both should be interpreted with caution as colonizing insect species are largely expected to be independent and rarely respond to each other (Pintar and Resetarits 2020c), and there are no widely accepted methods for generating effect sizes with mixed‐effects models, respectively. All univariate analyses were conducted using the lme4 v 1.1‐23 and lmerTest v 3.1‐2 packages in R v 4.0.2 (Bates et al 2015, Kuznetsova et al 2017, R Core Team 2020).…”

Match and mismatch: Integrating consumptive effects of predators, prey traits, and habitat selection in colonizing aquatic insects

“…Other patch characteristics may be more important in complex situations, although predation risk has often, but not always, shown primacy over other factors (Binckley & Resetarits, 2008; Pintar et al., 2018). Presence of conspecifics or heterospecifics could play roles in community contexts, but colonizing adult beetles largely do not respond to the presence of other beetles within patches (Pintar & Resetarits, 2020a). Interestingly, when a range of habitat patch sizes is available, N. irrorata selects the largest available patches and C. glyphicus the smallest, whereas L. fasciatus shows no preferences (Resetarits et al., 2019).…”

“…Zooplankton abundances were initially included as a covariate, but had no significant effects ( p > 0.30) and were excluded. Individual species are largely expected to be independent as colonizing adult beetles do not typically respond to the presence of other beetle within patches (Pintar & Resetarits, 2020a). We analyzed water chemistry similar to other variables with mixed effects models fit by maximum likelihood, treatment as a fixed effect, block as a random effect, and contrasts that first tested between mesocosms with N. irrorata and those without, then between mesocosms with 2 N. irrorata and those with 10 N. irrorata .…”

“…The predominance of complex life cycles leads to networks of interactions within aquatic habitat patches, among neighboring aquatic patches, and at the terrestrial/aquatic interface. As animals colonize, they select patches based on a variety of characteristics, including resource quality and quantity (Pintar & Resetarits, 2017a, 2017b), predator presence and identity (Resetarits & Binckley, 2013; Resetarits & Pintar, 2016), competitors (Blaustein & Kotler, 1993; Pintar & Resetarits, 2020a), canopy cover (Binckley & Resetarits, 2007), and interactions and feedbacks among factors (Arav & Blaustein, 2006; Kraus & Vonesh, 2010; McNamara et al., 2021; Pintar et al., 2018). Aquatic insects, and beetles in particular, can form very diverse assemblages in small habitat patches (Jeffries, 1994; Schneider & Frost, 1996), enabling assessment of predator–prey interactions among multiple interacting species.…”

Predator-specific responses and emergent multi-predator effects on oviposition site choice in grey treefrogs,Hyla chrysoscelis

“…Insects (except the very smallest) were separated from and incapable of interacting with fish due to the screen lids. Many of the colonists, or their larvae, are potentially significant predators of larval anurans, however, just as we removed eggs daily, we removed colonizing insects weekly (from above the screens), so there was no ongoing community assembly (buildup of insect densities) to dampen fish effects [28], or directly drive Hyla oviposition [48], as has been seen with much higher insect densities in much smaller mesocosms. We nevertheless examined possible correlations between insect colonization and Hyla oviposition and present that data in the results.…”