generality of abundance-environment relationships in microhabitats: A comment on Lancaster and Downes (2009)

We comment on a criticism of hydraulic preference models and instream habitat models. We provide evidence of the generality of many hydraulic preference models, which supports their use in instream habitat modelling even if the detailed mechanistic causes of the observed preferences are not fully known. We also reply to the assertion that preference models are not based on sound ecological theory. We identify unbalanced use of available knowledge and point out limitations relating to too detailed biological focusses. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.