In southeast Nicaragua, recent waves of illegal deforestation for cattle pasture are damaging the Indio-Maiz Biological Reserve (IMBR) and Rama-Kriol territory (RKT), with negative consequences to aquatic ecosystems and the people who rely on services they provide. Deforestation and subsequent land use are causing shifts in stream community structure that are mediated by changes in stream habitat. This study integrated temporally explicit land use information with stream habitat, macroinvertebrate, freshwater shrimp, and fish community data to assess impacts of deforestation on 15 headwater streams in southeast Nicaragua's poorly studied protected rainforests. The new calculation, deforestation history index (DFI), a product of deforestation amount and time since deforestation for the catchment draining to each stream reach, was the best linear predictor of most taxa responses-better than other habitat metrics and raw forest cover at multiple scales. Stream reaches that were deforested for a longer time and to a larger extent-thus having higher values for the DFI-had less large wood, organic debris, macroalgae, and macrophytes; more stream bank erosion and sedimentation; degraded riparia; lower diversity and abundance of macroinvertebrates, shrimp, and fish; higher invertebrate evenness; and distinct changes in invertebrate community composition. All deforested reaches also had smaller sized game fish. New registers of fish species and insect genera were recorded for Nicaragua. As this is the first aquatic study in these watersheds of the IMBR and RKT, this region should be a high priority for further research and conservation investment before it is lost.
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