Relationships between instream communities and decomposition (H5)
Shredder abundance had a strong positive effect on instream CK and this effect decreased with increasing DS and UC% (Table 3, Fig. 5). Richness was however not selected among the best predictors when included in similar models. The multivariate variation in community was related with the variability in CK among perennial sites (Procrustes; r = 0.431, p= 0.002) and headwaters (r = 0.438, p= 0.001), marginally so for mainstem sites (r = 0.450, p = 0.06) but not among intermittent sites (r = 0.286, p = 0.121).