Macroinvertebrate food-web responses to BTI application in tropical streams

The data were used to assess the effects of Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (BTI), applied for blackfly control, on macroinvertebrate abundance, taxonomic richness, functional feeding groups, and food‑web structure. Sampling was conducted in two consecutive years (2015 and 2016), during which each stream was divided into an untreated upstream control stretch and a downstream stretch treated with BTI.

Within each stretch, multiple sampling sites were surveyed, and benthic macroinvertebrates were identified to the lowest feasible taxonomic level (typically morphospecies) and assigned to functional feeding groups (e.g. predators, collector‑filterers, collector‑gatherers, shredders, scrapers). The dataset includes raw site‑level observations as well as stream‑level summaries used in paired statistical analyses comparing treated and control reaches.