It is widely accepted that climate change constrains biota. Yet, because of the lack of consistent multisite and multitaxon surveys, few studies have addressed general rules about how climate change impacts on structure and diversity of animal communities. Especially, the relative influence of nonclimatic anthropogenic disturbances on this impact is fairly unknown. Here, we present for the first time a meta-analysis assessing the effect of global warming on stream organisms. Fish communities of large rivers in France undergoing various anthropogenic pressures showed significant increase in proportions of warm-water species and of specific richness during the last 15-25 years. Conversely, the equitability decreased, indicating a gradual decrease of the number of dominant species. Finally, the total abundance increased, coupled with rejuvenation and changes in size-structure of the communities. Interestingly, most of these effects were not depressed by the strength of nonclimatic anthropogenic disturbances. Conversely, geographical location of communities and especially closeness of natural barriers to migration could influence their response to climate change. Indeed, increase in the proportion of southern species seemed hindered at sites located close to the southern limit of the European species' geographical ranges. This work provides new evidence that climate change have deep impacts on communities which, by overtaking the effects of nonclimatic anthropogenic disturbances, could be more substantial than previously thought. Overall, our results stress the importance of considering climate change impacts in studies addressing community dynamics, even in disturbed sites.

Estuarine fish assemblages are subject to a great environmental variability that largely depends on both upstream fluvial and downstream marine influences. From this ecohydrological view, our study introduces a macroecological approach aiming to identify the main environmental factors that structure fish assemblages among European tidal estuaries.The present paper focuses on the influence of large scale environmental gradients on estuarine fish species richness. The environment of 135 North-eastern Atlantic estuaries from Portugal to Scotland was characterized by various descriptors especially related to hydromorphology.Major environmental trends among estuaries were underlined using multivariate techniques and cluster analyses applied to abiotic data. In particular, an integrative system size covariate was derived from a principal component analysis. Factors explaining patterns of species richness at different scales from local habitat to regional features were highlighted. Based on generalised linear models, the estuarine system size, and more particularly the entrance width, and also the continental shelf width were identified as the best explanatory variables of estuarine fish species richness at a large scale. Our approach provides a standardized method to estimate the relationship between fish assemblages and environmental factors. This constitutes a first step in assessing estuarine ecological status and studying the effects of additional factors such as anthropogenic disturbances.

Based on a large standardised data set, the present study proposed a meta-analysis to describe general patterns in the functional diversity of estuarine fish assemblage in terms of both number of species and density along the European Atlantic coast. Fish species collected from 31 European estuaries from Portugal to Scotland were allocated to functional groups according to their ecological utilization of estuaries. A clustering analysis was performed to compare the overall functional structure of estuaries based on fish composition. Generalised linear models were computed to identify relationships between large-scale abiotic and intra-estuarine descriptors and functional attributes of estuarine fish assemblages. The total number of species, and more especially of marine species, was higher in larger estuaries with a wide entrance and, locally, in polyhaline waters. The total density was mainly related to the proportion of intertidal mudflats and, locally, was greater in mesohaline waters. In terms of relative density, northern systems were dominated by marine and catadromous species, while estuarine species were prevalent in the southern ones. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The Water Framework Directive requires the assessment of the ecological status of transitional waters considering the fish component. An original methodology, based on a pressure-impact approach, was established to develop a multimetric fish-based index to characterize the ecological quality of French estuaries. An index of contamination, based on the chemical pollution affecting aquatic systems, was used as a proxy of anthropogenic pressure. The fish metric selection was based on their response to disturbances tested via statistical models (generalized linear models) taking into account sampling strategy and estuarine features. Four metrics, for which discriminating responses to level of pressure were demonstrated, were retained to constitute the estuarine multimetric fish index. This new tool appeared particularly relevant to detect the contamination effects on fish communities in estuaries. It could help managers to take decisions in order to maintain or reach the good status required by the Water Framework Directive for 2015.

No abstract