Study area
We conducted this study in 61 stream sites distributed across two
different Neotropical areas (31 in Amazonia and 30 in Uruguay), which
are characterized by different climatic conditions. Amazonia has a
tropical climate with a mean annual temperature of 26.8ºC and mean
precipitation of 2136.8 mm year-1. Uruguay has a
subtropical climate, with a mean annual temperature of 17.4ºC and mean
precipitation approximately 1203.3 mm year-1. In both
Amazonia and Uruguay, land-use types were monitored yearly at the stream
site scale. All survey campaigns followed standardized sampling
protocols (see sampling of biotic communities in Supporting
Information), including fish, arthropods, macrophytes, and regular
measurements of in-stream environmental conditions. Specifically, each
stream was sampled twice, during a dry and rainy season, totaling 122
sampling events (between 2017 and 2019).