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Drying intermittent stream networks often have permanent water refuges that are important for recolonisation. These habitats may be hotspots for interactions between fishes and invertebrates as they become isolated, but densities and diversity of fishes in these refuges can be highly variable across time and space. Insect emergence from streams provides energy and nutrient subsidies to riparian habitats. The magnitude of such subsidies may be influenced by in‐stream predators such as fishes. We examined whether benthic macroinvertebrate communities, emerging adult insects, and algal biomass in permanent grassland stream pools differed among sites with naturally varying densities of fishes. We also manipulated fish densities in a mesocosm experiment to address how fishes might affect colonisation during recovery from hydrologic disturbance. Fish biomass had a negative impact on invertebrate abundance, but not biomass or taxa richness, in natural pools. Total fish biomass was not correlated with total insect emergence in natural pools, but orangethroat darter (Etheostoma spectabile) biomass was inversely correlated with emerging Chironomidae biomass and individual midge body size. The interaction in our models between predatory fish biomass and date suggested that fishes may also delay insect emergence from natural pools, altering the timing of aquatic–terrestrial subsidies. There was an increase over time in algal biomass (chlorophyll‐a) in mesocosms, but this did not differ among fish density treatments. Regardless, fish presence in mesocosms reduced the abundance of colonising insects and total invertebrate biomass. Mesocosm invertebrate communities in treatments without fishes were characterised by more Chironomidae, Culicidae, and Corduliidae. Results suggest that fishes influence invertebrates in habitats that represent important refuges during hydrologic disturbance, hot spots for subsidy exports to riparian food webs, and source areas for colonists during recovery from hydrologic disturbance. Fish effects in these systems include decreasing invertebrate abundance, shifting community structure, and altering patterns of invertebrate emergence and colonisation.

Stoichiometric ratios of resources and consumers have been used to predict nutrient limitation across diverse terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. In forested headwater streams, coarse and fine benthic organic matter (CBOM, FBOM) are primary basal resources for the food web, and the distribution and quality of these organic matter resources may therefore influence patterns of secondary production and nutrient cycling within stream networks or among biomes. We measured carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) content of CBOM and FBOM and calculated their stoichiometric ratios (C/N, C/P, N/P) from first- to fourth-order streams from tropical montane, temperate deciduous, and boreal forests, and tallgrass prairie, to compare the magnitude and variability of these resource types among biomes. We then used the ratios to predict nutritional limitations for consumers of each resource type. Across biomes, CBOM had consistently higher %C and %N, and higher and more variable C/N and C/P than FBOM, suggesting that microbial processing results in more tightly constrained elemental composition in FBOM than in CBOM. Biome-specific differences were observed in %P and N/P between the two resource pools; CBOM was lower in %P but higher in N/P than FBOM in the tropical montane and temperate deciduous forest biomes, while CBOM was higher in %P but similar in N/P than FBOM in the grassland and boreal forest biomes. Stable 13C isotopes suggest that FBOM likely derives from CBOM in tropical and temperate deciduous forest, but that additional non-detrital components may contribute to FBOM in boreal forests and grasslands. Comparisons of stoichiometric ratios of CBOM and FBOM to estimated needs of aquatic detritivores suggest that shredders feeding on CBOM are more likely to experience nutrient (N and/or P) than C limitation, whereas collector–gatherers consuming FBOM are more likely to experience C than N and/or P limitation. Our results suggest that differences in basal resource elemental content and stoichiometric ratios have the potential to affect consumer production and ecosystem rates of C, N, and P cycling in relatively consistent ways across diverse biomes.

Restoration projects are often implemented to address specific issues in the environment. Consequences of a restoration project, if any are measured, typically focus on direct changes to the projects focus. However, changing habitat structure likely results in changes to the environment that affect the communities living there. Rock weirs have been used for channel stabilization in many midwestern rivers. Previous research in a southern Illinois river found that weirs benefitted aquatic macroinvertebrate and riparian bird communities by enhancing habitat heterogeneity and insect emergence production. We hypothesized that fishes would also benefit from weirs through enhanced habitat and food availability. We collected fishes in the Cache River in southern Illinois using hand nets, seines, and electroshocking at sites where weirs had been installed and at non-weir sites. Gut contents were identified and individual food items measured. Fish species richness, but not diversity, was higher at weir sites. Fish communities also differed between site types, with benthic feeders characterizing weir sites. Gut content biomass and abundance differed among fish guilds but not between weir and non-weir sites. Fishes from both site types selected for prey taxa predominately found at weirs. Differences between site types were not always captured by univariate metrics, but connecting fish prey to habitat suggests a reach-scale benefit for fishes through increased abundance of favored prey and enhanced prey diversity. Additionally, given the paucity of rocky substrata in the river as a whole, rock weirs enhance fish species richness by providing habitat for less common benthic species.