The little things that move: How aquatic insects link water to land

Despite being small, aquatic insects are ubiquitous at the land-water interface. Their aquatic larval stages give way to a terrestrial adult phase. This transformation has consequences for the terrestrial areas near the water as the insects can move sometimes large quantities of material, energy and nutrients onto land. These resources can enter terrestrial food webs at the "top" acting as food for predators or at the "bottom" as detritus and nutrients into the soil. Chironomid midges at Lake Myvatn in Iceland are exemplary cases of a massive aquatic emergence that has significant effects on land. We found that midges represent a significant flux of C across the lake-land interface, they stimulate primary production and increase the abundance of terrestrial arthropods consumers. We argue that although Myvatn may be unique in its quantity of aquatic insect emerging, the dynamics that play out are typical for terrestrial communities at the land-water ecotone.