Federated Research Data Repository / dépôt fédéré de données de recherche
Srayko, Stephen H.;
Jardine, Timothy D.;
Phillips, Iain D.;
Chivers, Douglas P.
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2022-01-12
We investigated the magnitude and implications of a little understood ecosystem linkage in the form of migrating aquatic insects, corixids (Hemiptera: Corixidae), that fly from geographically isolated wetlands into large rivers in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North America every fall, to overwinter. These migrations can lead to greatly increased riverine corixid densities and a shift in the species assemblage to one dominated by wetland-breeding species. Once in the rivers, these migratory insects act as an important dietary subsidy to several species of riverine fish. The following dataset contains files from our study with information on (1) study sites, (2) corixid abundances and (3) species composition in wetland and river habitats, (4) fish stomach content data, (5) data from passive samplers used to estimate migratory corixid inputs into rivers, and (6) a simulation used to estimate the magnitude of the corixid flux between wetlands and rivers over a larger scale. This study has demonstrated an extensive cross-boundary flux that occurs between spatially separated wetland and river ecosystems, highlighting a need for conservation to ensure that this connection is maintained.