A major overarching hypothesis in community ecology posits that the availability of suitable habitat for consumers varies in time and space as defined by abiotic and biotic factors. Disturbance alters those factors with consequences for community assembly across the landscape. In tropical islands, hurricanes are a main source of disturbance with profound long-term impacts on communities. We assessed the response of montane stream shrimp assemblages to hurricane disturbances (from hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017) in Puerto Rico. We expected hurricanes to change shrimp species evenness and density due to drastic changes in canopy openness, allochthonous inputs, and pool morphology. After the hurricane, shrimp assemblages were expected to be dominated by species that feed on detritus. Months after the hurricane, we expected an increase in gravid females in response to increased food availability (mostly algae). We sampled shrimps monthly for 34 months using 46 traps placed in 18 pools along two streams.
Results/Conclusions
Hurricane disturbance had positive effects on shrimp abundance and species diversity. Preliminary results shows that shrimp responses were pool specific. For example, Macrobrachium spp. abundance increased in some pools, but maintained similar abundances in others. In conclusion, hurricane disturbances had heterogenous effects on shrimp assemblages, responses were pool specific, but there was an overall positive effect on the community.