Changes in Fish Communities of the Seine
Basin over a Long-Term Perspective
Jérôme Belliard, Sarah Beslagic, and Evelyne Tales
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
2 Various and Complementary Data to Address Time Trajectories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
3 Non-native Species: An Accelerating Establishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
4 Migratory Fish: A Dramatic Decline Followed by a Still Limited Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
5 Changes in Local Communities Since the Nineteenth Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
6 The Seine River Axis During the Past Four Decades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
7 Conclusion and Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Abstract Using both historical and current data, we retrace the long-term evolution
of fish assemblages in the Seine River basin since 1880, from headwaters to
upstream of the Seine River estuary. Successive phases are observed, related to
anthropogenic impacts on habitat conditions and river water quality. Temporal
trajectories were thus reconstructed on several reaches based on the change of the
proportion of species’ ecological traits, in order to detect the main drivers of
alteration. Contrasted trends occur between large rivers and small streams of the
basin. In this context, migratory fish declined, whereas the proportion of non-native
species increased in the fish community of the Seine River.
Keywords Historical ecology, Migratory fish, Non-native species, Urban impact,
Water pollution
The copyright year of the original version of this chapter was corrected from 2019 to 2020.
A correction to this chapter can be found at https://doi.org/10.1007/698_2020_667
J. Belliard (*), S. Beslagic, and E. Tales (*)
Irstea UR HYCAR, Antony Cedex, France
e-mail: jerome.belliard@irstea.fr; evelyne.tales@irstea.fr
Nicolas Flipo, Pierre Labadie, and Laurence Lestel (eds.), The Seine River Basin,
Hdb Env Chem (2021) 90: 301–322, https://doi.org/10.1007/698_2019_380,
© The Author(s) 2020, corrected publication 2020, Published online: 3 June 2020
301
Basin over a Long-Term Perspective
Jérôme Belliard, Sarah Beslagic, and Evelyne Tales
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
2 Various and Complementary Data to Address Time Trajectories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
3 Non-native Species: An Accelerating Establishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
4 Migratory Fish: A Dramatic Decline Followed by a Still Limited Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
5 Changes in Local Communities Since the Nineteenth Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
6 The Seine River Axis During the Past Four Decades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
7 Conclusion and Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Abstract Using both historical and current data, we retrace the long-term evolution
of fish assemblages in the Seine River basin since 1880, from headwaters to
upstream of the Seine River estuary. Successive phases are observed, related to
anthropogenic impacts on habitat conditions and river water quality. Temporal
trajectories were thus reconstructed on several reaches based on the change of the
proportion of species’ ecological traits, in order to detect the main drivers of
alteration. Contrasted trends occur between large rivers and small streams of the
basin. In this context, migratory fish declined, whereas the proportion of non-native
species increased in the fish community of the Seine River.
Keywords Historical ecology, Migratory fish, Non-native species, Urban impact,
Water pollution
The copyright year of the original version of this chapter was corrected from 2019 to 2020.
A correction to this chapter can be found at https://doi.org/10.1007/698_2020_667
J. Belliard (*), S. Beslagic, and E. Tales (*)
Irstea UR HYCAR, Antony Cedex, France
e-mail: jerome.belliard@irstea.fr; evelyne.tales@irstea.fr
Nicolas Flipo, Pierre Labadie, and Laurence Lestel (eds.), The Seine River Basin,
Hdb Env Chem (2021) 90: 301–322, https://doi.org/10.1007/698_2019_380,
© The Author(s) 2020, corrected publication 2020, Published online: 3 June 2020
301