Food-web of the Broadstone stream

The food-web of the Broadstone stream, which is an acidic (pH: 5 - 6), iron-rich and fishless headwater stream, was assessed applying a high and uniform taxonomic resolution in dietary analyses, by resolving the complete benthic community to species, including the meiofauna, protozoa, and algae. Meiofauna accounted for up to 73% of all species in the seasonal food-webs. Assessment of meio- and macrofaunal food-web and body-size structure revealed a large increase in species richness, predominantly meiofauna-dominated, and fundamental changes in food-web characteristics and the seasonal dynamics of food-webs. The web structure of this stream is complex and reticulate, and the patterns observed in these seasonal webs differed from previous stream webs, resulting in low connectance, high linkage density and long food chains.1-5