Filters and templates: stonefly (Plecoptera) richness in Ouachita Mountains streams, U.S.A

Abstract

1. We collected adult stoneflies periodically over a 1-year period at 38 sites in twoheadwater catchments in the Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas, U.S.A. The 43 speciescollected were a subset of the Ozark-Ouachita fauna and the much larger fauna of theeastern U.S.A. We estimated 78–91% species coverage in the two catchments usingjackknife extrapolation of species richness from our survey.2. Many streams, especially small ones, lacked surface water for months, but others, bothsmall and large, flowed permanently.3. Using published regional presence–absence and coarse ecological data in a discriminantfunction analysis (DFA), we identified stream size (negative) and regional frequency ofoccurrence (positive) as predictors of presence in these headwater catchments. For thecombined catchments, the extrapolated richness (51 spp.) was similar to an estimate (48spp.) based on predicted absences from DFA and the Ouachita provincial total of knownstonefly species (57 spp.).4. Local species richness (1–27 spp. per site) was correlated strongly with stream size(catchment area) but was independent of stream drying. Generic richness was correlatednegatively with stream drying and positively, but less strongly, with stream size.5. Regionally endemic stoneflies dominated in drying streams, and widely distributedspecies dominated in more permanent streams. The composition of stonefly assemblageswas associated with regional factors (species pools, regional abundance, evolution oftolerant endemic species, regional climate) and local factors (drying, stream size).

Citation

Sheldon, Andrew L.; Warren, Melvin L., Jr. 2009. Filters and templates: stonefly (Plecoptera) richness in Ouachita Mountains streams, U.S.A. Freshwater Biology 54:943-956.