If a tree falls in the forest: terrestrial habitat loss predicts caddisfly (Insecta: Trichoptera) assemblages and functional feeding group biomass throughout rivers of the North-central United States

Comparison of caddisfly (Insecta, Trichoptera) assemblages from lake and river habitats of the Huron Mountains of Michigan (USA)

“…Due to the high degradation rates of freshwater habitats, knowledge on the original characteristic assemblages of such habitats is lacking ( Ricciardi and Rasmussen 1999 ; Master et al 2000 ; Strayer 2006 ). Many recent studies have suggested large-scale declines in aquatic insect species ( DeWalt et al 2005 ; Houghton and Holzenthal 2010 ; Hawkins and Yuan 2016 ; Sánchez-Bayo and Wyckhuys 2019 ; Rhodes 2019 ; Houghton and DeWalt 2021 ) or fundamental changes to their community ecology ( Baranov et al 2020 ; van Klink et al 2020 ). Without truly undisturbed reference sites for comparison, however, it is difficult to accurately evaluate current species composition or ecological functioning of freshwater ecosystems.…”