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In large-scale aquatic ecological studies, direct habitat descriptors (e.g. water temperature, hydraulics in river reaches) are often approximated by coarse-grain surrogates (e.g. air temperature, discharge respectively) since they are easier to measure or model. However, as biological variability can be very strong at the habitat scale, surrogate variables may have a limited ability to capture all of this variability, which may lead to a lesser understanding of the ecological processes or patterns of interest. In this study, we aimed to compare the capacity of direct habitat descriptors vs. surrogate environmental variables to explain the organization of fish and macroinvertebrate communities across the Loire catchment in France (105 km2). For this purpose, we relied on high-resolution environmental data, extensive biological monitoring data (>1000 sampling stations) and multivariate analyses. Fish and macroinvertebrate abundance datasets were considered both separately and combined to assess the value of a cross-taxa approach. We found that fish and macroinvertebrate communities exhibited weak concordance in their organization and responded differently to the main ecological gradients. Such variations are probably due to fundamental differences in their life-history traits and mobility. Regardless of the biological group considered, direct habitat descriptors (water temperature and local hydraulic variables) consistently explained the organization of fish and macroinvertebrate communities better than surrogate descriptors (air temperature and river discharge). Furthermore, the organization of fish and macroinvertebrate communities was slightly better explained by the combination of direct or surrogate environmental variables when the two biological groups were considered together than when considered separately. Tied together, these results emphasize the importance of using a cross-taxa approach in association with high-resolution direct habitat variables to more accurately explain the organization of aquatic communities.

Reach-scale at-a-station hydraulic geometry (AHG) relationships are power laws that describe variations of reach-averaged water depth, wetted width, and current velocity in stream reaches when discharge varies. Modeling AHG exponents is important, because the variations of hydraulics with discharge in stream networks influence physical habitats of aquatic species, biodiversity, water temperature, nutrient fluxes, and sediment transport. Theoretical approaches indicated that AHG exponents should depend on topographic descriptors of cross sections and roughness elements. Empirical approaches suggested that AHG exponents partly depend on hydraulic characteristics measured at a single discharge. We used a unique data set of AHG observed in 812 stream reaches (obtained from measurements at several discharge rates or from hydrodynamic models) to (1) test the consistency of theoretical and empirical predictions of AHG exponents and (2) test the generality of AHG predictions across rivers of different countries with variable landscape settings. We found that observed AHG depended on topographic predictors (describing cross-section shape and substrate size) as expected from theory. However, AHG exponents were better predicted by empirical hydraulic characteristics of reaches: the ratio of wetted width to bankfull width and the reach Froude number. The effects of hydraulic variables were consistent with those of topographic predictors. In addition, relations between AHG and hydraulic predictors were significant and with similar direction in different data sets. Despite limited explanatory power, our results help identifying general drivers of AHG exponents. Their application still requires measurements at a single discharge rate but open perspectives of generalized AHG prediction by remote sensing.

Approaches available for estimating the ecological impacts of climate change on aquatic communities in river networks range from detailed mechanistic models applicable locally to correlative approaches applicable globally. Among them, hydraulic habitat models (HABMs) link hydraulic models of streams with biological models that reflect how organisms select microhabitat hydraulics. Coarser but more general species distribution models (SDMs) predict changes in geographic distributions; they

Abstract. The ability to understand and predict coarse sediment transport in torrent catchments is a key element for the protection and prevention against the associated hazards. In this study, we collected data describing sediment supply at 99 torrential catchments in the Northern French Alps. The sample covers a wide range of geomorphic activity: from torrents experiencing debris flows every few years to fully forested catchments exporting small bedload volumes every decade. These catchments have long records of past events and sediment supply to debris basins. The mean annual, the 10-year return period and the reference volume (i.e. the 100-year return level or the largest observed volume) of sediment supply were derived for studied torrents. We examined the relationships between specific sediment supply volumes and many explanatory variables using linear regression and random forest approaches. Results showed that the ratio of sediment contributing area (bare soil) to catchment area is the most important predictor of the sediment production specific volumes (m3/km2). Others variables such as the Metlon index or the indices of sediment connectivity have also an influence. Several predictive models were developed in order to estimate the sediment supply in torrents that are not equipped with debris basins.