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1. Landscape management practices that alter energetic linkages between aquatic and terrestrial habitats can affect associated ecosystem processes, and ultimately the provision of ecosystem services of importance to humanity. Such effects cannot always be inferred from current biomonitoring schemes, which are typically based on assessment of community structural parameters rather than functional attributes related to important ecosystem‐level processes.

2. We investigated effects of forest clearcutting, a major landscape‐level disturbance known to alter the energetic basis of aquatic food webs, on headwater streams in northern Sweden. The key ecosystem process of leaf decomposition was measured as an index of ecosystem functioning. The biomass of detritivorous shredders was also quantified, along with various community structural parameters associated with the diversity, composition and functional …