Water is essential for life on Earth, yet little is known about how water acts as a trophic currency, a unit of value in determining species interactions in terrestrial food webs. We tested the relative importance of groundwater and surface water in riparian food webs by manipulating their availability in dryland floodplains. Primary consumers (crickets) increased in abundance in response to added surface water and groundwater (contained in moist leaves), and predators (spiders and lizards) increased in abundance in response to added surface water, in spite of the presence of a river, an abundant water source. Moreover, the relative magnitude of organism responses to added water was greatest at the most arid site and lowest at the least arid site, mirroring cricket recruitment, which was greatest at the least arid site and lowest at the most arid site. These results suggest that water may be a key currency in terrestrial dryland food webs, which has important implications for predicting ecosystem responses to human‐ and climate‐related changes in hydrology and precipitation.

Previous work suggests that animal water balance can influence trophic interactions, with predators increasing their consumption of water‐laden prey to meet water demands. But it is unclear how the need for water interacts with the need for energy to drive trophic interactions under shifting conditions. Using manipulative field experiments, we show that water balance influences the effects of top predators on prey with contrasting ratios of water and energy, altering the frequency of intraguild predation. Water‐stressed top predators (large spiders) negatively affect water‐laden basal prey (crickets), especially male prey with higher water content, whereas alleviation of water limitation causes top predators to switch to negatively affecting energy‐rich midlevel predators (small spiders). Thus, the relative water and energy content of multiple prey, combined with the water demand of the top predator, influences trophic interactions in ways that can alter the strength of intraguild predation. These findings underscore the need for integration of multiresource approaches for understanding implications of global change for food webs.

Growth rates of individual freshwater shrimp of the species Atya lanipes and Xiphocaris elongata were measured in a second‐order stream in the Luquillo Experimental Forest in Puerto Rico over 10 years (1997–2007). Shrimp living at lower altitudes in warmer water and wider stream channels with more algal and detrital foods were predicted to grow and reproduce more rapidly. Shrimp were marked and recaptured periodically in pools located at three altitudes to determine whether temperature affected growth rates among individual A. lanipes and X. elongata. Mean annual water temperatures ranged from 20 to 24 °C with the uppermost pool being cooler than the lower pools. Mean annual growth rates for Atya and Xiphocaris were 0.27 and 0.1 mm carapace length, respectively, for all three populations. Differences in growth were partially influenced by how each species obtains its food. Atya is a filter feeder and scraper and has continuous access to suspended organic particles and biofilms. The slower growth rate for Xiphocaris elongata is most likely a result of the wider range in quality and accessibility of food resources. Differences in pool morphology and depths probably affected differences in food availability. Increased leaf litter retention in the deeper upper and lower pools probably increased shrimp growth rates, while washout of leaf litter from the relatively shallow, elongate mid‐altitude pool decreased Atya lanipes growth rates. These long‐lived, slow‐growing shrimp species transform a wide range of organic materials into their biomass. Because of the slow growth rates of these detritivores shrimp, tropical storms, hurricanes, droughts or other disturbances could have persistent, long‐term impacts on detrital processing and on the populations of their predators.