Data from: Colorado aquatic macroinvertebrate samples and duck counts

Food availability varies considerably over space and time in wetland
systems, and consumers must be able to track those changes during nutrient
demanding points in the life cycle like breeding. Resource tracking has
been studied frequently among herbivores, but receives less attention
among consumers of macroinvertebrates. We evaluated the change in resource
availability across habitat types and time, and the simultaneous density
of waterfowl consumers throughout their breeding season in a
high-elevation, flood-irrigated system. We also assessed whether the
macroinvertebrate resource density better predicted waterfowl density
across habitats, compared to consistency (i.e., temporal evenness) of the
invertebrate resource or taxonomic richness. Resource density varied
marginally across wetland types but was highest in basin wetlands (i.e.,
ponds) and peaked early in the breeding season, whereas it remained
relatively low and stable in other wetland habitats. Breeding duck density
was positively related to resource density, more so than temporal resource
stability, for all species. Resource density was negatively related to
duckling density, however. These results have the potential to not only
elucidate mechanisms of habitat selection among breeding ducks in
flood-irrigated landscapes, but also suggest there is not a consequential
trade-off to selecting wetland sites based on energy density versus
temporal resource stability and that good-quality wetland sites provide
both.