Macroinvertebrate drift and community colonisation on perspex artificial substrates in the Ohinemuri River, New Zealand

Abstract

Macroinvertebrate colonisation of perspex multiplate artificial substrates suspended in the Ohinemuri River, New Zealand, was investigated over a 70-day period. Community development was examined in terms of the colonisation and extinction rates of the MacArthur-Wilson equilibrium model for island faunas. Although colonisation and extinction rates were equal at 35 days, permanent stability was not attained: the extinction rate and colonisation rate continued to fluctuate as new taxa continued to colonise. This lack of permanency was attributed to changes to the surface of the plates through increases in the accumulation of fine paniculate matter, and to changes in the drifting fauna that affect the pool of potential colonisers. Stream drift was an important source of colonisers, especially in the initial stages of colonisation. Although many members of the New Zealand aquatic fauna have non-seasonal life cycles, and are present as larvae at all times of year, they may occur seasonally in the drift. Therefore colonisation patterns may differ seasonally. Drift was not the only source of artificial substrate colonisers.

Experimental effects of sediment deposition on the structure and function of macroinvertebrate assemblages in temperate streams

“…Hyrdopsychidae, Simuliidae). Species are also inherently variable in their ability to colonize newly created conditions—in this case those represented by introduced substrates (Boothroyd and Dickie, 1991; Olomukoro and Okologume, 2008). In addition to limits imposed by drift propensity among species, the enclosed nature of the trays could have altered interstitial flow and interstitial colonization routes.…”

Designing a standardised sampling method for invertebrate monitoring: a pilot experiment in a motorway retention pond

“…In all substrates, even though the species composition tended to stabilise after 35 days of exposure, equilibrium did not appear to have been reached as is often observed in such experiments (De Pauw et al, 1986;Peckarsky, 1986). Conversely, colonization was shown to be mainly under the inƀuence of drift processes in lotic systems (Mackay, 1992;Boothroyd & Dickie, 1991;Mihaljevic et al, 1998). This highlights the importance of the artiſcial substrate type on colonization in lentic systems.…”

Macroinvertebrate communities evaluated prior to and following a channel restoration project in Silver Creek, Blaine County, Idaho, 2001-16

“…Colonization among individual substrates at a given site and among site locations can vary considerably because of local differences in the proximity to pools of potential upstream colonizers and to the variable accumulation of periphyton and other particulate organic materials that act as food and habitat (Boothroyd and Dickie, 1991;Smock, 1996). Within-site variability in macroinvertebrate colonization was examined by calculating the coefficient of variation (CV) of taxa richness for the three individual substrate samplers deployed at each site and was based on colonization results for all sites, seasons, and years of the study.…”