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PRESS RELEASE - The Water Law protects freshwater ecosystems by regulating activities and infrastructure with a potential impact on watercourses, whose legal definition was established in 2015. A research team at INRAE has developed the first national watercourse map. This map reveals disparities in how this definition is applied from one French département (administrative region) to another, to the detriment of small headwater streams – which are often rich in biodiversity – and intermittent streams. These results appear on 19 September in Environmental Science & Technology.

Temperatures are rising more rapidly in Alpine regions than the global average. Strongly location-specific, alpine biodiversity is particularly vulnerable to climate change because the mountain topography and weather conditions restrict opportunities for species to migrate towards the poles. It is therefore expected that the populations of alpine species will instead respond by shifting their ranges to higher elevations. By coupling models of future ice extent, glacial influence on downstream river habitats, and species ecological niches, an international team of researchers has developed a new method to identify potential future refugia for cold-adapted aquatic species. This new approach can now be used to predict future alpine biodiversity and ensure that actions relating to the adaptation of protected species offer maximum conservation potential.

In 2022, many perennial rivers across France, Europe and North America, ran dry. Where human actions, exacerbated by climate change, are the cause of such events, the hydrological and ecosystem responses may be very different from those found in naturally intermittent rivers and streams (i.e., without water for a part of the year). An international team of scientists from the European DRYvER project (coordinated by the RiverLy Unit) and the Dry Rivers Research Coordination Network (supported by the NSF) in the USA, have together been working on a comprehensive overview of the current situation for both human-induced and naturally occurring flow intermittence in rivers, examining causes, responses and implications. Their findings, published on 7 December 2022 in BioScience, demonstrate that we must develop contrasted adaptive management strategies for river networks affected by human-induced drying compared to those exposed to natural flow intermittence.

Millions of people across Europe are at risk of flood. Each year, in France, damage caused by floods cost between 650 and 900 million euros, and lives continue to be lost. The enormity of the risk posed by flooding was recognised in October 2007 by the publication of the European Flood Directive, requiring each of the EU’s member states to formulate flood risk management plans. For many years, INRAE’s scientists have used their research skills and expertise to improve understanding of the processes and events associated with inundation and to devise tools and methods to protect society from its impacts.

Ecotoxicology is an interdisciplinary field with changing contours as it responds to major challenges. A look back at the work of INRAE, a leader in ecotoxicology.

PRESS RELEASE - Although medicines have improved human health and life expectancy, pharmaceutical residues cause pollution and impact the environment and living organisms. For the first time, a large-scale international study led by the University of York (United Kingdom), in which INRAE and more than 80 other research institutes participated, analysed pollution in 258 rivers in over 100 countries across five continents. Their results, published on February 14th in PNAS, show pharmaceutical contamination in all except three of the rivers studied, with levels that are potentially toxic to aquatic life in a quarter of those sites. The most polluted regions are in developing countries where pharmaceutical manufacturers are located or where wastewater treatment is inadequate.

PRESS RELEASE - A new study of 64 million kilometres of rivers around the world reveals that between 51% and 60% of them stop flowing periodically or dry for part of the year. These findings, published on 16 June 2021 in Nature, stem from the first-ever effort to empirically quantify and map the global distribution of non-perennial rivers and streams. This study, conducted by researchers from INRAE and McGill University, aims to strengthen recognition of the prevalence and ecological, and the need for improved management of these unique ecosystems.

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