A trophic metaweb of benthic ecosystems of South Korean streams and rivers

The metaweb is a dictionary of nodes and their potential interactions developed for a particular region focusing on particular kinds of ecosystem. Based on local biodiversity information, the metaweb can be easily decomposed to local webs to understand the local level ecological interactions. This data provides a metaweb developed for benthic ecosystem of South Korean streams and rivers. Maximum taxonomic resolution of the metaweb is set at genus level. GBIF backbone taxonomy was followed for classification and nomenclature. Then interactions for the nodes were searched from 624 different scientific literature. When same set of interactions for all members belongs to that taxonomic category, those nodes were merged into higher taxonomic level. Total 452 nodes and 25,645 interactions were included in the metaweb. Most of the nodes are represented by macroinvertebrates (63.7%) followed by fishes (22.3%) and microalgae (13%). Most of the interaction in this metaweb is originated from macroinvertebrates (83%), i.e., where macroinvertebrates are resource. This metaweb can be used to understand spatiotemporal change of food webs of South Korean streams and causal factors behind it. Apart from that, this metaweb will enrich the global understanding about ecological interaction.