Disturbance regimes, such as floods and droughts, place great stress on freshwater environments and their associated flows. Resilience and resistance to these flows is essential for maintenance of community processes and dynamics. However, untangling and understanding community trait responses to these flows provides insight to the underlying processes and ecosystem drivers required to sustain viable freshwater communities in an ever-changing environment.
This paper discusses macroinvertebrate assesmblage and trait responses to drought and flood flows within the subtropical-humid world bioregion (coastal Manning River Catchment, New South Wales, Australia). Using a reference condition approach, resistant, resilient and affected macroinvertebrate traits within these flow regimes, and their significance, are discussed.