Summary1. Knowledge of global patterns of biodiversity and regulating variables is indispensable to develop predictive models. 2. The present study used predictive modelling approaches to investigate hypotheses that explain the variation in fish species richness between estuaries over a worldwide spatial extent. Ultimately, such models will allow assessment of future changes in ecosystem structure and function as a result of environmental changes. 3. A comprehensive worldwide data base was compiled of the fish assemblage composition and environmental characteristics of estuaries. Generalized Linear Models were used to quantify how variation in species richness among estuaries is related to historical events, energy dynamics and ecosystem characteristics, while controlling for sampling effects. 4. At the global extent, species richness differed among marine biogeographic realms and continents and increased with mean sea surface temperature, terrestrial net primary productivity and the stability of connectivity with a marine ecosystem (open vs. temporarily open estuaries). At a smaller extent (within a marine biogeographic realm or continent), other characteristics were also important in predicting variation in species richness, with species richness increasing with estuary area and continental shelf width. 5. The results suggest that species richness in an estuary is defined by predictors that are spatially hierarchical. Over the largest spatial extents, species richness is influenced by the broader distributions and habitat use patterns of marine and freshwater species that can colonize estuaries, which are in turn governed by history contingency, energy dynamics and productivity variables. Species richness is also influenced by more regional and local parameters that can further affect the process of community colonization in an estuary including the connectivity of the estuary with the adjacent marine habitat, and, over smaller spatial extents, the size of these habitats. In summary, patterns of species richness in estuaries across large spatial extents seem to reflect from global to local processes acting on community colonization. The importance of considering spatial extent, sampling effects and of combining history and contemporary environmental characteristics when exploring biodiversity is highlighted.

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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.

The concept of trophic level is particularly relevant in order to improve knowledge of the structure and the functioning of an ecosystem. A precise estimation of fish trophic levels based on nitrogen isotopic signatures in environments as complex and fluctuant as estuaries requires a good description of the pelagic and benthic trophic chains and a knowledge of organic matter sources at the bottom. In this study these points are considered in the case of the Gironde estuary (south west France, Europe). To obtain a good picture of the food web, fish stomach content analyses and a bibliographic synthesis of the prey feeding ecology were carried out. Fish trophic levels were calculated from these results and δ 15 N data. The feeding link investigation enabled us to identify qualitatively and quantitatively the different preys consumed by each fish group studied, to distinguish the prey feeding on benthos from those feeding on pelagos and to characterize the different nutritive pools at the base of the system. Among the species studied, only Liza ramada and the flatfish (Platichthys flesus and Solea solea) depend mainly on benthic trophic compartments. All the other fish groups depend on several trophic (benthic and/or pelagic) sources. These results enabled us to correct the calculation of fish trophic levels which are coherent with their feeding ecology data obtained from the nitrogen isotopic integrative period. The present work shows that trophic positions are linked with the feeding ecology of fish species and vary according to individual size. Ecological data also allow the correction of the isotopic data by eliminating absurd results and showing the complementarity of the two methods. This work is the first to consider source variability in the fish food web. This is an indispensable step for trophic studies in a dynamic environment. The investigation of matter fluxes and recycling processes at the food web base would provide an useful improvement in future estuarine food web research.

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