2.4 Species trait data
We split our dataset into merolimnic and hololimnic species because we
expected to see differences in species and OTU richness over our
sampling period based on their different life cycles. Additionally we
looked more in detail into species and OTU richness of the most abundant
merolimnic (EPT and Diptera) and hololimnic orders (Annelida and
Coleoptera) and their associated FFG. To assign life cycle
characteristics and FFG to our taxa, we used trait data from
freshwaterecology.info (Schmidt-Kloiber and Hering, 2015) for a given
taxon if available. If not available, we used data from a higher
taxonomic level, such as genus-level trait values if species‑level
values were missing. For taxa with no trait values at the species-,
genus-, or family‑level, we used an averaging procedure whereby values
were averaged across species within the genus if species-level values
were available and across all taxa within the family if not (Kunz et
al., 2022). We used the relative proportion of the different FFG as the
proportion of the overall detected feeding types divided by the number
of all species found per sampling day.