Environmental information from place-names has largely been overlooked by geoarchaeologists and fluvial geomorphologists in analyses of the depositional histories of rivers and floodplains. Here, new flood chronologies for the rivers Teme, Severn, and Wye are presented, modelled from stable river sections excavated at Broadwas, Buildwas, and Rotherwas. These are connected by the Old English term *wæsse, interpreted as ‘land by a meandering river which floods and drains quickly’. The results reveal that, in all three places, flooding during the early medieval period occurred more frequently between AD 350–700 than between AD 700–1100, but that over time each river's flooding regime became more complex including high magnitude single events. In the sampled locations, the fluvial dynamics of localized flood events had much in common, and almost certainly differed in nature from other sections of their rivers, refining our understanding of the precise nature of flooding which their names sought to communicate. This study shows how the toponymic record can be helpful in the long-term reconstruction of historic river activity and for our understanding of past human perceptions of riverine environments.

A checklist of Corsica's lotic Chironomidae is given. Collections of pupal exuviae from 32 river sites (July 1995, May 1999)yielded a total of 147 species-level taxa including several previously unknown pupal exuviae. Three of them are figured? Hayesomyia Pe nov., Eukiefferiella Pe nov., Thienemanniella Pe nov. These unusual forms may possibly be endemic speciesto Corsica that are new to science. Most of the chironomid species recorded are western Palaearctic. 11 species are circum-mediterranean.

En rivière, le cumul d'échantillons prélevés sur plusieurs mésohabitats fournit généralement une image de la communauté macrobenthique d'une station, chaque mésohabitat étant défini comme la combinaison d'un type de substrat et d'une gamme de vitesse de courant. Des simulations ont permis d'étudier la variabilité de l'image de la communauté d'une station où 8 mésohabitats seraient pris en compte alors que 11 sont réellement disponibles. Les résultats sont replacés dans le cadre de l'utilisation de l'Indice Biologique Global Normalisé (IBGN). Les indices de structure taxinomique sont extrêmement variables suivant la combinaison considérée. La richesse taxinomique est l'indice le plus stable si on le rapporte à sa gamme de variation. A l'opposé, l'abondance varie énormément. Les indices de diversité/dominance occupent une place intermédiaire. Plus un indice de structure intègre les abondances des taxons, plus il dépend des mésohabitats échantillonnés. La richesse taxinomique est intégrée à l'IBGN sous forme de classes, ce qui atténue l'effet de sa variabilité. Tout en respectant le protocole d'échantillonnage, l'incertitude sur la note IBGN peut atteindre 3 points. Des solutions sont envisagées pour optimiser les méthodes de suivi de la qualité biologique d'un cours d'eau.

Neural networks provide a "black box" model for explaining and predicting trout abundance with 8 environmental variables. This work investigates the specific effect of each variable, by inputting fictitious configurations of explanatory variables and by checking the responses of the model. The comparison between this response of the model to environmental variables on one hand, and results from field observations on the other hand, shows similarities and indicates neural network modelling can be trusted. The elevation appears to be the major explanatory factor. The influence of shelters, bottom velocity and Froude number also play an important role. When considered separately, depth does not have a notable influence on the density of trout. Such confirmations of field observations suggest that these models can be used to obtain a clear identification and hierarchization of the factors influencing the abundance of trout and the mode of action of the factors. This approach can be extended to other applications in quantitative ecology in which non-linear relationships are usually observed.

In the absence of recognised criteria for phosphate in rivers, this paper attempts to arrive at an independant phosphate criterion value for Irish rivers as distinct from lakes. A comparison is made between biological assessments of river water quality and phosphate values at some 800 sites over a 3-year period. This analysis demonstrated that river eutrophication begins to be a problem when median annual « ortho-phosphate » (MRP) levels exceed 30 μg P l-1 . A spreadsheet modelling technique aimed at predicting in-stream phosphate levels is illustrated by an example for the River Deel in County Mayo, Ireland. Regression equations link river flow rates or phosphate concentrations with daily rainfall figures in order to predict stream discharge and phosphate concentration on a 365-day basis. The equations — or similar site-specific equations — can be implemented using any of the standard spreadsheet packages for microcomputers.

Pupae and pupal exuviae were collected by drift and hand netting from 27 sites on 10 streams in the Sierra Nevadamountains in 1986 and 1987. The sites represented an altitudinal range from 340 m to 2100 m. The pupal exuviae collections revealed a composite fauna of 143 species. Eukiefferiella (12 spp.) and Tvetenia (3 spp.) were dominant both taxonomically and numerically along most of the altitudinal profile, followed by Cricotopus (11 spp.), Orthocladius (9 spp.) and Diamesa (7 spp.). The altitudinal distribution of the 99 most common species is shown and compared with those obtained in other Europeanstreams or rivers, especially in the Pyrenees. The general pattern of altitudinal zonation shows an increase in speciesrichness from the headwaters (< 2000 m : 58 spp.) toward the middle reaches (1000-1600 m : 121 spp.). The theoreticallyexpected highest species richness in the foothill reaches (> 1000 m : 113 spp.) was not obtained. The periods of reduced or intermittent flow, the domestic organic inputs and the narrowness of the channels in the foothill reaches appear responsible for the decrease of the species richness of the chironomid communities.

Fish assemblage structure of 29 Brittany streams is examined. Catchment area, stream gradient, and distance from sources are significantly correlated with species richness. Addition of species with increasing stream size occurs for all streams with no evident longitudinal replacement, suggesting little discontinuity in the stream geomorphology or temperature. Total density of fishes decreases significantly with an increase in stream size but no relation was found between total biomass and catchment area. Headwaters are characterized by short-lived, solitary, and nocturnal feeding species, whereas downstream sites are characterized by long-lived, schooling, diurnal feeding species. Presence of solitary and nocturnal feeding species upstream could be related to predation and/or competition factors. Temporal variation of individual species density varies from an upstream-downstream gradient with the highest variation upstream. Species responsible for this variation were mostly small benthic ones relatively difficult to sample, therefore, the greater temporal variation in upstream areas could be attributed to a deficiency of the sampling methodology.

In the Lea River basin, 47 taxa of caddisflies have been found belonging to 32 genera and 15 families. Rhyacophilidae (5 species), Hydropsychidae (6 species), Limnophilidae (4 species) and Polycentropodidae (4 species) were the dominant families ; Hydropsyche pellucidula being the most abundant species. Using all these taxa as entities, an ordination of the River Lea Basin has been made by means of Correspondance Analysis. The ordinations with higher ecological meaning were obtained on the plane of the second and third axes, which explained about 21 % of the total variance. According to this ordination the following zones characterized by different communities of caddisflies could be identified in this basin : the headwater of the main river, the small tributaries and a downstream sequence from site 1 to site 5 of the main river as well as a downstream sequence from site 1 to site 2 of its principal tributary. Along the second axi,s a seasonal succession from spring to summer and autumn could be observed in the main river.

The chemical composition of the river Bernesga has been evaluated throughout four seasonal sampling studies at twelvesampling points. The tendency towards an increase in mineralization all along the river can be observed when using a principal component analysis to the complete data gathered. A temporal differentiation based on the variations which affect the flow rate through out the year is also established.The spatial organization defined by the second component enables us to use the scores as the starting point in order to determine the value of the chemical distance between the different sampling stations. The contrast between the chemical and actual distance gives an overall view of the river, which is a reflection of what happens on its course with regard to its chemical processes.