Global change is increasing river drying and transforming surrounding landscapes through human land use, with important consequences for freshwater biodiversity. Yet how river drying and land use jointly influence biodiversity across spatial scales remains poorly understood. Using macroinvertebrate data from 49 riverine metacommunities in southeastern France, we examined how river drying and land use affect biodiversity across...

Climate change is increasing the proportion of river networks experiencing flow intermittence, which in turn reduces local diversity (i.e., α‐diversity) but enhances variation in species composition among sites (i.e., β‐diversity), with potential consequences on ecosystem stability. Indeed, the multiscale theory of stability proposes that regional stability can be attained not only by local processes but also by spatial asynch...

As alien invasive species are a key driver of biodiversity loss, understanding patterns of rapidly changing global species compositions depends upon knowledge of invasive species population dynamics and trends at large scales. Within this context, the Ponto-Caspian region is among the most notable donor regions for aquatic invasive species in Europe. Using macroinvertebrate time series collected over 52 years (1968–2020) at 26...

Disturbance can strongly influence ecosystems, yet much remains unknown about the relative importance of key processes (selection, drift, and dispersal) in the recovery of ecological communities following disturbance. We combined field surveys with a field experiment to elucidate mechanisms governing the recovery of aquatic macroinvertebrates in habitats of an alluvial floodplain following flood disturbance. We monitored macro...

Global freshwater biodiversity is declining dramatically, and meeting the challenges of this crisis requires bold goals and the mobilisation of substantial resources. While the reasons are varied, investments in both research and conservation of freshwater biodiversity lag far behind those in the terrestrial and marine realms. Inspired by a global consultation, we identify 15 pressing priority needs, grouped into five research...

Climate change and human pressures are changing the global distribution and the extent of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES), which comprise half of the global river network area. IRES are characterized by periods of flow cessation, during which channel substrates accumulate and undergo physico‐chemical changes (preconditioning), and periods of flow resumption, when these substrates are rewetted and release pulse...