The volume focuses on the ecological functioning of rivers, which has received less attention than functioning of lakes and reservoirs. The selected papers cover a large range of topics relating to aquatic communities, eutrophication, nutrient dynamics and organic pollution, erosion and sediment transport, and fate of micropollutants at the basin scale. Integrated approaches developed in order to study the ecological functioning of fluvial systems perturbed by human activity are presented. This functioning is analysed from the point of view of fundamental research, but insights into system management are not neglected.
This book will be of interest to researchers in the field of aquatic ecology, river system functioning, and water surface pollution, to postgraduate students, to the institutions involved in water resource management, and to the drinking water and waste water treatment industries. It draws information from many large river systems in the world.

Zusammenfassung
This book will be of interest to researchers in the field of aquatic ecology, river system functioning, and water surface pollution, to postgraduate students, to the institutions involved in water resource management, and to the drinking water and waste water treatment industries.

Inhalt
Plankton dynamics in the river Rhine during downstream transport as influenced by biotic interactions and hydrological conditions.- Aquatic bryophyte assemblages along a gradient of regulation in the river Rhine.- A macrophyte communities sequence as an indicator of eutrophication and acidification levels in weakly mineralised streams in north-eastern France.- Use of oligochaete communities for assessment of ecotoxicological risk in fine sediment of rivers and canals of the Artois-Picardie water basin (France).- Contribution of the macrobenthic compartment to the oxygen budget of a large regulated river: the Mosel.- Contribution to the ecological quality of Aliakmon river (Macedonia, Greece): a multivariate approach.- Multiple human impacts by the City of Paris on fish communities in the Seine river basin, France.- Rehabilitation efforts for Atlantic salmon in the Meuse basin area: Synthesis 1983-1998.- Biophysical interactions and the structure and dynamics of riverine ecosystems: the importance of biotic feedbacks.- Biogeochemical nutrient cycles and nutrient management strategies.- Application of the 'snapshot' methodology to a basin-wide analysis of phosphorus and nitrogen at stable low flow.- Nutrient runoff and transfer from land and rivers to the Gulf of Riga.- Retention of nutrients in river systems: dependence on specific runoff and hydraulic load.- Modelling nutrient fluxes from source to river load: a macroscopic analysis applied to the Rhine and Elbe basins.- Integrated modelling of hydrological processes and nutrient dynamics at the river basin scale.- Nitrogen transfers through the Seine drainage network: a budget based on the application of the 'Riverstrahler' model.- Understanding the oxygen budget and related ecological processes in the riverMosel: the RIVERSTRAHLER approach.- Model-based analysis of oxygen budget and biological processes in the regulated rivers Moselle and Saar: modelling the influence of benthic filter feeders on phytoplankton.- Optimal design and real time control of the integrated urban run-off system.- Quantification of nitrate removal by a flooded alluvial zone in the Ill floodplain (Eastern France).- The impact of hydrological fluctuations on shallow groundwater hydrochemistry under two alluvial meadows.- Scenario analysis of nutrient management at the river basin scale.- Methodology for multifunctional assessment of riverine wetlands in the Seine river basin.- Linking land use, erosion and sediment yields in river basins.- High frequency variations of water flux and sediment discharge during the Little Ice Age (15861725 AD) in the Rhône Delta (Mediterranean France). Relationship to the catchment basin.- Estimation of sediment yield and soil loss using suspended sediment load and 137Cs measurements on agricultural land, Brie Plateau, France.- Assessment of soil erosion in a small agricultural basin of the St. Lawrence River watershed.- Challenges in relating land use to sediment yield in the Upper Yangtze.- Bank erosion in a Danish lowland stream system.- Flood transport of dissolved and suspended matter in the El Abid river basin (Morocco).- Spatial and temporal variability of Total Suspended Solids in the Seine basin.- Point and diffuse source analysis of heavy metals in the Elbe drainage area: Comparing heavy metal emissions with transported river loads.- Annual emissions of pollutants from mine stone applications in drainage basins of Dutch rivers.- Role of the dams on the River Lot on two types of pollution: point-sources (cadmium) and non-point sources (phosphorus).- Acadmium budget for the Lot-Garonne fluvial system (France).- Contamination by Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in French and European rivers.- Variability of herbicides (triazines, phenylureas) and tentative mass balance as a function of stream order, in the river Marne basin (France) Triazine and phenylurea flux and stream order.