For several years, measures to insure healthy river functions and to protect biodiversity have focused on management at the scale of drainage basins. Indeed, rivers bear witness to the health of their drainage basins, which justifies integrated basin management. However, this vision should not mask two other aspects of the protection of aquatic and riparian biodiversity as well as services provided by rivers. First, although largely depending on the ecological properties of the surrounding terrestrial environment, rivers are ecological systems by themselves, characterized by their linearity: they are organized in connected networks, complex and ever changing, open to the sea. Second, the structure and functions of river networks respond to manipulations of their hydrology, and are particularly vulnerable to climatic variations. Whatever the scale considered, river networks represent hotlines for sharing water between ecological and societal systems, as well as for preserving both systems in the face of global change. River hotlines are characterized by spatial as well as temporal legacies: every human impact to a river network may be transmitted far downstream from its point of origin, and may produce effects only after a more or less prolonged latency period. Here, I review some of the current issues of river ecology in light of the linear character of river networks. (C) 2011 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
- River ecosystems
- Biodiversity
- Human health
- Corridors
- Refuges
- Threatened species
- Homogenisation
- Landscape connectedness
- Invasive species
- Extreme meteorological events
- Climate change
- FRESH-WATER FISH
- NEW-ZEALAND STREAMS
- TROUT SALMO-TRUTTA
- CLIMATE-CHANGE
- PROTECTED AREAS
- BROWN TROUT
- GLOBAL DIVERSITY
- RIPARIAN ZONES
- FOOD WEBS
- AMPHIBIAN DECLINES
Univ Toulouse 3, CNRS UPS INPT, UMR 5245, EcoLab,Lab Ecol Fonct & Environm, F-31062 Toulouse, France
Decamps, H (reprint author), Univ Toulouse 3, CNRS UPS INPT, UMR 5245, EcoLab,Lab Ecol Fonct & Environm, Batiment 4R1,118 Route Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse, France.