The anthropogenic nature of present-day low energy rivers in western France and implications for current restoration projects

Natural vs anthropogenic streams in Europe: History, ecology and implications for restoration, river-rewilding and riverine ecosystem services

“…By the the 11 th century CE as revealed by the Domesday Book (1086 CE), there were at least 5624 watermills in England (Open Domesday Project, 2017). Calculations for the upper Thames suggest a density of 0.2 mills km -2 (Peberdy, 1996) and estimates based upon historic maps and archaeology suggest higher spacing on smaller rivers such as 2.9 mills km -1 on the Erft River (Germany), 1 mill km -1 and around 0.7 mills km -1 for the rivers of orders 2 to 5 in Normandy (Lespez et al, 2005(Lespez et al, , 2015Beauchamp et al, 2017). The high density of mills is surprising given the very low gradients of these rivers (10 -3--10 -4 m m -1 ) limiting the longitudinal gain of hydraulic head (Downward and Skinner 2005;Mordant and Mordant 1992).…”

“…To avoid the copy-and-paste approach used in short-term studies which lead too often to truncated specifications and/or failure for restoration projects (Palmer et al, 2009). It is desirable to extend our knowledge on alternative fluvial states and their resilience by including long-term dynamics and evolutionary trajectories (Brierley and Fryirs, 2016;Dearing et al, 2015;Brown et al, 2013;Lespez et al, 2015).…”

Reconstructing long-term trajectories of fish assemblages using historical data: the Seine River basin (France) during the last two centuries

“…These findings prompt us to call for the careful use of historical data to define reference conditions for river biota, even if these data are from periods when industrialization and modern agriculture were still poorly developed. This caution is especially important in lowland areas of Western Europe, where the effects of natural drivers and human development on rivers have interacted for centuries (Lespez et al 2015).…”

Eels, Beavers, and Horses: Human Niche Construction in the European Late Upper Palaeolithic

“…The attraction of horses to water and their vulnerability near it, and the effect of beavers on Lateglacial river systems, are just two of the ways these species interacted with each other and impacted the floodplain environment. Geomorphological research has shown that floodplains in this period were covered by secondary channels (Brown 1995;Pastre et al 2003;Lespez et al 2015) and beaver damming of these channels would have increased the year-round water availability -effectively creating many lakes or ponds (Coles 2006). This would have increased habitats available for fish (Häglund & Sjöberg 1999), waterfowl and amphibians.…”