How Do Functional Feeding Guilds Respond to Habitat Distribution?

Abstract

This study looked at how macroinvertebrates respond to variation in habitat, which can lend insight on how they mediate ecological processes. Macroinvertebrates play an important role in transporting and cycling energy, nutrients, and resources through a stream. They can be categorized according to their food-acquisition strategy into five functional feeding guilds (FFGs): scrapers, shredders, predators, gatherers, and filterers. Each FFG preferentially consumes a specific food source, thereby mobilizing it through the stream food web.