Spatial arrangement or amount? Spatially variable oviposition habitat can determine aquatic insect egg abundance

Abstract

Both the amount and spatial arrangement (configurational heterogeneity) of resources can affect population abundance and community diversity via influence on the growth, survival, reproduction, recruitment and movement of species. However, in most cases, it is difficult to separate the effects of resource amount from arrangement because these two attributes are often naturally correlated. In this study, we examined the configurational heterogeneity of resources (oviposition habitat—emergent rocks, ER) within rivers and decoupled the effects of resource amount from those due to the spatial arrangement on oviposition by eight species of aquatic insects (seven caddisflies and one mayfly). To ca..