Habitat patchiness, ecological connectivity and the uneven recovery of boreal stream ecosystems from an experimental drought

In an outdoor mesocosm experiment, we investigated how impacts of drought on boreal stream ecosystems are altered by the spatial arrangement of local habitat patches within stream channels, and variation in ecological connectivity with a regional species pool. We measured basal ecosystem processes underlying carbon and nutrient cycling: (i) algal biomass accrual, (ii) microbial respiration and (iii) decomposition of organic matter, and sampled communities of aquatic fungi and benthic invertebrates.