Evidence for Substrate Influence on Artificial Substrate Invertebrate Communities.

Cobble baskets are frequently used as a tool to measure differences in benthic macroinvertebrate communities between waterbodies; however, underlying differences in substrate type may influence the resultant colonization of baskets, misrepresenting communities. This study tests the hypothesis that cobble basket placement influences the resulting benthic macroinvertebrate community. Cobble basket arrays (n = 4) were deployed in Dog Lake, Saskatchewan, in 2011 (97 d) and 2012 (95 d) on cobble habitats and soft or sandy substrates ∼100 m apart.