Riparian forests and macroinvertebrates support multiple ecosystem processes across temperate and tropical streams

Ecosystems are interconnected, and ecological processes frequently transcend the physical boundaries that define them. Fluxes of energy, matter, and organisms not only form important ecosystem processes within but also between ecosystems. However, the role of biological drivers in simultaneously supporting multiple ecosystem processes at the interface between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems (i.e., aquatic-terrestrial ecosystem processes) remains poorly understood, both locally and across regions. To assess the relative importance of riparian forests, detritus consumers, and leaf litter mixing on different ecosystem processes of freshwater detrital food webs, we used leaf litter bags to subsidise local terrestrial leaf litter to forested and non-forested headwater stream sites in a temperate and tropical region. We also manipulated macroinvertebrate access and the composition of leaf litter mixtures. We measured three key aquatic-terrestrial ecosystem processes: biomass accrual of aqu..., , , # Riparian forests and macroinvertebrates support multiple ecosystem processes across temperate and tropical streams

Dryad DOI: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.r7sqv9smr

Rebecca Oester, Paula M. de Omena, Larissa Corteletti, Marcelo S. Moretti, Florian Altermatt, Andreas Bruder

[[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

This READ ME file contains information on the R scripts and variables in the datasets used for the analyses.

Datafiles:

1. dat.ergx
Main dataset with information on each leaf litter bag with the following variables:

Sample_ID: Unique identifier for each treatment (leaf litter in each bag); NA for Brazil because of naming differences
Site: Site identifier (Ending F indicating forested and ending A indicating non-forested)
Country: Study country (either Switzerland or Brazil)
Region: Region identifier for Switzerland and Brazil
Stream: Stream identifier
Vegetation: Riparian vegetation type (either forested or non-forested)
Mesh: Mesh size of leaf lit...,