Climate change is altering flow regime in rivers worldwide. In central North America, key changes include increasing frequency and magnitude of floods. More frequent bankfull floods lead to physical readjustments to stream channels and increased mobilization of streambed sediments. We have observed that ongoing channel instability is variably distributed along the longitudinal gradient of the Gasconade, a 6th order, gravel bedded river in Missouri, USA. For this study, we asked how various streambed-associated organisms have responded to these alternating degrees of physical instability along the Gasconade. Along an approximately 55-km stretch of the river, we selected three sections, each with a paired stable and unstable sample reach. During baseflow in July 2025, we collected data from ~100-m lengths on the downstream ends of glides, just upstream of riffle crests. In each glide, we quantified the spatial distribution of and area occupied by a common emergent macrophyte (water willow, Dianthera americana), and we surveyed mussels along ten 1-m wide transects. We also semi-quantitatively collected full invertebrate assemblages from benthic gravels, root mats, and large woody debris (LWD). Both water willow and mussels showed more clumped distribution in stable than unstable reaches, although densities of both taxa were similar between the two reach types. Preliminarily data on invertebrate assemblages suggest that benthic and LWD densities were similar between reach types. However, root mats appear to have greater invertebrate densities in unstable than stable reaches, suggesting an interactive effect of reach type with habitat type, and that root mats may function as a refugium from physical disturbance. In addition, invertebrate diversity preliminarily appears to have been greater in unstable than stable reaches, potentially due to increased flow-related habitat heterogeneity in the unstable reaches. Given the potential role of physical and flow-related habitat heterogeneity in this system, a planned next step is to expand the scope of sampling within each reach to include riffles and runs. Our results can help inform watershed management decisions, such as determining ecological benefits of stream bank stabilization practices.