Abstract: Climate change is increasing the frequency, severity, and extent of wildfires and drought in many parts of the world, with numerous repercussions for the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of streams. However, information on how these perturbations affect top predators and their impacts on lower trophic levels in streams is limited. The top aquatic predator in southern California streams is native Oncorhynchus mykiss, the endangered southern California steelhead trout (trout). To examine relationships among the distribution of trout, environmental factors, and stream invertebrate resources and assemblages, we sampled pools in 25 stream reaches that differed in the presence (nine reaches) or absence (16 reaches) of trout over 12 years, including eight reaches where trout were extirpated during the study period by drought or post‐fire flood disturbances. Trout were present in deep pools with high water and habitat quality. Invertebrate communities in trout pools were dominated by a variety of medium‐sized collector–gatherer and shredder invertebrate taxa with non‐seasonal life cycles, whereas tadpoles and large, predatory invertebrates (Odonata, Coleoptera, Hemiptera [OCH]), often with atmospheric breather traits, were more abundant in troutless than trout pools. Structural equation modelling of the algal‐based food web indicated a trophic cascade from trout to predatory invertebrates to collector–gatherer taxa and weaker direct negative trout effects on grazers; however, both grazers and collector–gatherers also were positively related to macroalgal biomass. Structural equation modelling also suggested that bottom‐up interactions and abiotic factors drove the detritus‐based food web, with shredder abundance being positively related to leaf litter (coarse particulate organic matter) levels, which, in turn, were positively related to canopy cover and negatively related to flow. These results emphasise the context dependency of trout effects on prey communities and of the relative importance of top‐down versus bottom‐up interactions on food webs, contingent on environmental conditions (flow, light, nutrients, disturbances) and the abundances and traits of component taxa. Invertebrate assemblage structure changed from a trout to a troutless configuration within a year or two after trout were lost owing to post‐fire scouring flows or drought. Increases in OCH abundance after trout were lost were much more variable after drought than after fire. The reappearance of trout in one stream resulted in quick, severe reductions in OCH abundance. These results indicate that climate‐change induced disturbances can result in the extirpation of a top predator, with cascading repercussions for stream communities and food webs. This study also emphasises the importance of preserving or restoring refuge habitats, such as deep, shaded, perennial, cool stream pools with high habitat and water quality, to prevent the extirpation of sensitive species and preserve native biodiversity during a time of climate change.

Abstract: We studied benthic macroinvertebrate communities in 12 mid‐elevation mountain streams in the Sierra Nevada, California. Data were collected at nine times (seven springs and two autumns) over a 14‐year period of variable hydrological conditions, including years of flood and extreme unprecedented drought. The taxonomic and trait structures of communities were similar during wet and average springs but became increasingly different as drought continued and smaller streams became intermittent. The density of total invertebrates, primarily chironomids, increased during the drought years, but the richness and abundance of mayfly, stonefly, and caddisfly (EPT) taxa declined during the late drought. During the late drought, the proportions of rheophilic, semivoltine taxa with clinger or swimmer behavioural habits decreased, whereas small, stress‐tolerant taxa with burrower and climber habits increased. Collector–gatherers dominated in all periods, but during the severe drought the relative abundance of micropredators increased and filterers, shredders, and grazers decreased. We also found greater changes in community structure between spring runoff and autumn base flow conditions in an average than a wet year. However, spring to autumn population growth rates were much greater during the wet than average year. Invertebrate richness and EPT abundance decreased and community structure showed large changes when stream discharge fell below 1–10 L/s, but remained relatively constant across a range of higher flows. During the severe drought, there were significant declines in the densities of 40% of the common EPT taxa compared to average and wet years, but chironomid, mite, and other invertebrate taxa showed variable responses. Invertebrate diversity, community structure, and ecosystem functions in small, headwater streams are especially vulnerable to drought conditions, which are expected to increase in frequency and intensity with climate change in the Sierra Nevada and other mountainous regions.

We compared the efficacy of stable carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen isotope ratios in identifying the resources used by insect consumers in headwater streams of southern California. We also compared gut contents with consumer stable isotope ratios and mixing model estimates of resource contributions to predator diet. Stable hydrogen isotope ratios (as δ2H) of algivores were well separated from ratios for detritivores, whereas relationships between stable carbon (as δ13C) and nitrogen (as δ15N) ratios of consumers and their expected diets were weaker and more ambiguous. δ2H values of primary consumers more strongly reflected the proportions of their gut contents consisting of algae than δ13C values. The proportions of algivorous prey in predator gut contents increased with mixing model estimates of algivore contributions to predator diet using δ2H but not δ13C values. Our findings support the use of hydrogen isotope ratios in food web studies of streams in southern California and their potential use in assessing the effects of anthropogenic and natural disturbance on basal resource contributions to food webs that might not otherwise be identified using carbon isotope ratios.

© 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. We investigated the effects of a wildfire on stream physical, chemical and biological characteristics in a Mediterranean climate, comparing stream community structure and consumer resource use in burned versus unburned catchments in Santa Barbara County, CA, U.S.A. Canopy cover was lower and water temperature was higher in streams draining basins where the riparian vegetation burned than in streams in unburned basins or burned basins where riparian vegetation remained intact. Stream flow and suspended sediment concentrations during large post-fire storms and wet season nutrient levels were higher in burned than unburned catchments, with increased sedimentation after flood peaks. A year after fires, algal levels were highest in streams where riparian vegetation burned and lowest in streams in burned basins where the riparian canopy remained intact. In contrast, streams in burned basins had lower particulate organic matter, detritivore and predator levels than unburned basins, regardless of whether riparian vegetation burned. Where present, southern California steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) were extirpated from burned basins. Algivore densities were high in streams with burned riparian vegetation for two post-fire years before declining to unburned stream levels. Shredder densities rebounded in streams in burned basins with intact riparian vegetation, but remained low for 4 years where riparian vegetation burned. Predatory invertebrate densities increased at sites where trout were eliminated by wildfire. Hydrogen stable isotope analysis indicated that the diets of most invertebrate taxa in streams with burned riparian vegetation a year after fires were comprised of a higher proportion of algal material than riparian detritus relative to invertebrates in streams with intact riparian vegetation. Wildfire impacts on stream food webs are determined, in part, by fire severity in the riparian zone. Streams with burned riparian canopies supported algal-based food webs and streams with intact riparian canopies sustained detrital-based food webs. Fire affected basal resources (nutrients, light, allochthonous inputs) with bottom-up effects on primary producers and consumers, but top-down effects were decoupled at the trophic link between invertebrate predators and primary consumers.

We investigated the population consequences of multiple behavioral responses of grazers to a foraging return-predation risk trade-off in an open system consisting of primary producers, grazers, and predators. Using a dynamical model where grazers adjust their foraging activity and emigration rate to the densities of predators and producers, we explored how changes in control variables (predator density, grazer immigration, and producer immigration and carrying capacity) affect the dynamics of producers and grazers at temporal scales shorter than consumer and predator reproduction. The model predicts that producer biomass increases and that both the density of foraging grazers and the feeding rate of predators decrease with predator density. These predictions hold although total (foraging + nonforaging) grazer density may actually increase with predator density. The latter will occur whenever the benefit of higher resource density outweighs the increased risk of predation. In this case, per capita grazer emigration decreases with predator density, which might be misinterpreted as a direct 'freezing' response to predators. Increased grazer immigration is predicted to result in decreased producer density and increased densities of both foraging and total grazers, as well as increased grazer emigration and predator feeding rates. Increased producer immigration or carrying capacity should increase producer and grazer densities and predator feeding rate but decrease per capita grazer emigration. Manipulation of predator (trout) densities in a set of nine large (50 m2) stream channels produced results in broad agreement with model predictions. Most notably, a positive effect of trout on benthic algal biomass was mainly mediated through grazer behavior (changes in the use of epibenthic surfaces and in emigration rate) rather than through consumptive reductions of grazer numbers by trout.