Aquatic beetles influence colonization of disparate taxa in small lentic systems

Structure of natural communities is shaped by both abiotic characteristics and by the ongoing processes of community assembly. Important to this process are the habitat selection behaviors and subsequent survival of colonists, both in the context of temporal changes in the abiotic characteristics and priority effects driven by earlier colonists. Aquatic beetles are prevalent in temporary freshwater systems, form speciose assemblages, and are often early colonists of temporary ponds. While beetles have the potential to influence community structure through post-colonization interactions (predation and competition), our goal was to determine whether the presence of beetle assemblages (versus patches without beetles) influence the colonization and oviposition of a diverse group of animals in a naturally-colonized experimental landscape. We established mesocosms that either contained existing beetle assemblages or contained no beetles and assessed abundances of subsequent colonists. Treefro...