Spatial arrangement or amount? Spatially variable oviposition habitat can determine aquatic insect egg abundance
Authors: Dwyer Georgia Kaye , Downes Barbara J. , Lancaster Jill , Rice Stephen P. , Slater Louise , Lester Rebecca E. 
Published: October 2024

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 capture the configurational heterogeneity of resources in 28 sites (riffles) across multiple streams in Australia and Scotland, we calculated fractal dimensions (DB) using the box‐counting technique. We then used simulated riffles to explore how numbers of ER, edginess (the proportion of ER along river margins) and patchiness (clustering of emergent rocks in the middle) separately and together affected the values of DB using asymptotic regression models. Finally, we used multiple regression to test whether the numbers of egg masses laid in natural riffles of each of the eight species were explained by the number of ER, fractal dimension or both.

The distributions of ER in natural riffles were scale‐independent, self‐repeating patterns (i.e. they were fractal), and values of DB varied significantly among riffles. Variations in fractal dimensions among simulated riffles were significantly related to the number of ER, edginess and patchiness. However, in natural riffles, only the number of ER and patchiness affected DB. Egg mass abundances were related to the fractal dimensions of ER distributions in riffles in three species and to the number of ER in five species.

The fractal dimensions of riffles are unlikely to be driven by large‐scale processes but instead may result from within‐riffle variability that influences rock movement, arrangement and emergence. Increased oviposition by aquatic insects in riffles with greater numbers of ER suggests that these species may be limited by the amount of oviposition resources. Of the species responding to fractal dimension, two species favoured tightly clustered ER whereas the third favoured ER in much looser clusters. It is feasible that aquatic insects can detect ER clusters from the air by responding to changes in the reflectivity of water (albedo) caused by turbulence around ER.

That fractals can capture configurational heterogeneity of resources in streams suggests that this technique is useful to test for general ecological patterns across diverse stream systems. Whether configurational heterogeneity influences adults directly or indirectly, these results showed that the amount and arrangement of suitable oviposition habitat plays a role in determining egg mass densities, with potential consequences for larval densities. These patterns may have important community‐level and functional consequences and hence spatial arrangements should be considered when humans manipulate these resources in rivers.