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Thermo-mineral springs are specific ecosystems with extreme environmental conditions that constitute interesting models for studying metacommunity processes. Since these springs can be considered as islands within a terrestrial context, we first aimed to test some predictions of the theory of island biogeography and the distance-decay hypothesis on benthic diatom communities. Then, we aimed to quantify the influence of physical, chemical, climatic and spatial factors on species assemblages. We evaluated the species-area relationship for all springs and for several group of springs classified according to their environmental and hydrochemical composition. The influence of environmental variables on α-diversity was tested. We also investigated whether β-diversity was related to spring isolation or changes in environmental conditions. Finally, we determined the importance of environmental and spatial variables in shaping diatom communities using ordination and variation partitioning. We did not find any species-area relationship whatever the group of springs investigated, and no geographical distance-decay pattern was observed. We found a significant effect of physical and chemical parameters on α-diversity and composition. Thus, diatoms communities of thermo-mineral springs did not seem to be influenced by dispersal processes at the scale of our study but appeared to be patterned by physical and chemical factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Riverbank erosion is an essential morphodynamic process for the improvement of river health and the ecohydrogeomorphological functioning of alluvial rivers. Lateral channel dynamics and sediment supply caused by bank erosion largely create and maintain heterogeneous in-channel habitats for fauna and aquatic or riparian plant species. However, humans very early started to stabilize riverbanks in order to favour navigation or to prevent valuable land and infrastructures close to the channel from eroding. During the 20th century, bank protection works such as riprap considerably increased and blocked lateral channel erosion, causing a loss of local sediment supply, which in turn resulted in a decrease in local bedload transport and channel incision. The aim of the article is to evaluate to what extent riprap removal may be an efficient restoration measure in terms of the reactivation of bank erosion and the replenishment of the local bedload in gravel-bed floodplain rivers with a sufficient amount of freedom space. An experimental in situ restoration approach was chosen. First, riprap was removed at two geomorphologically contrasting sites on the Allier River, France. Second, bank retreat was monitored, and the volumes eroded were quantified using photogrammetric and LiDAR surveys. Third, in the case of post-restoration bank erosion, grain size and morphological channel evolution analyses were carried out. Our results suggested that the removal of riprap is an effective measure for certain but not all channelized floodplain reaches. The geomorphological and sedimentary contexts are two criteria that should be considered when selecting sites for restoration. Thus, this study helps river managers to better target the criteria to be taken into account for the selection of sites with high potential for the restoration of lateral channel dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light and scanning electron microscope observations on the genus Fontina gen. nov. from a thermo-mineral spring of the Massif Central (France) are presented. Based on morphology, the new genus shows features that have not been described previously, such as the stria pattern, interrupted at the valve face/mantle junction and composed of one long, slit-like areola on both valve face and mantle. Externally, areolae are closed by hymenes. Fontina arverna sp. nov. is described as the typus generis of Fontina. This new genus was compared with some similar freshwater genera such as Adlafia, Chamaepinnularia, Genkalia, Germainiella, Microfissurata and Nupela. So far, we are unable to establish an evolutionary link or cladistic association with currently known genera. The new genus is described from a sampling site characterized by high conductivity and high carbonate concentration, brackish conditions and whose water originates deep in the crust (high lithium concentration). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the Neolithic way of life in the western Mediterranean during the sixth millennium cal. BC is the consequence of the spread of populations from the Near East after successive stages of cultural remodelling. Despite the clear contribution of the Near Eastern and Aegean Neolithic to the economic and technical changes that happened to the west, little is known here about their symbolic legacies, because of the scarcity of representations and ritual evidences associated to the earliest western Neolithic contexts. Excavations at the rock shelter of Pendimoun (southeastern France) yielded the first anthropomorphic stone sculpture from the western Mediterranean Neolithic (early sixth millennium cal. BC). Using both carving and painting techniques, it represents a realistic-looking human face and is a unique example within the western Mediterranean and European frameworks. After describing the shaping and colouring details of the mask, the authors here deal with its possible social significances and cultural connections. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents the first well-dated palaeoenvironmental study from the Sarliève marsh, a unique sedimentary record in the Limagne plain of central France, where all previous studies suffered from unreliable chronologies. We developed an accurate radiocarbon-based age-depth model and performed high-resolution multi-proxy sedimentological and geochemical analysis on a new sediment core from the heart of the sedimentary basin, improving the chronology and Holocene palaeoenvironmental interpretations. We found six potential (crypto)tephra fallouts (c. 9750, 8500, 7500, 7400, 6300, and 5800 cal yr BP) that enrich the Holocene tephrostratigraphy in Limagne, five of which were not previously documented in the sediments of the marsh. We also detected, for the first time, an array of volcanic phenomena such as degassing episodes (c. 6950 and 6050 cal yr BP), ash leaching phases (10250–9750, 8500–7400, and 5800–5100 cal yr BP), and earthquakes (c. 6800, 6600, 6050, 6100, and 1600 cal yr BP), suggesting a hitherto unsuspected period of high volcanic activity in the area between 7500 and 5800 cal yr BP. This increased activity appears to have caused a massive forcing of hydrosedimentary dynamics in the catchment in the Middle Holocene, by supplying significant volumes of fine volcanic ash to the palustrine basin, and thereby questioning the current Holocene morpho-sedimentary narrative for Limagne. The basin became a permanent freshwater lake after the Mid-Holocene climatic shift, and detrital influxes likely due to anthropogenic soil erosion appeared c. 5500 cal yr BP and grew steadily after 5000 cal yr BP, with a marked lull between 3600 and 3000 cal yr BP, perhaps because of a phase of settlement abandonments during the middle and early-late Bronze age. A series of lacustrine low-stands (c. 4750–4600, 3750–3600, 3350–3200 and 2950–2800 cal yr BP) that correlate strongly with western alpine lake records do not seem to have caused significant changes in the anthropogenic impact on soils modifying the sedimentary supply. Our results suggest that this lake could have been artificially drained c. 2550 cal yr BP, several centuries earlier than previously estimated, allowing us to hypothesize that Early Iron age societies already had substantial capacity to modify the hydraulic environment. Hydromorphic conditions developed thereafter, including complex short-lived marshy phases in late Roman times. • We present the first accurate chronological model for the Sarliève marsh. • Six (crypto)tephra fallouts were detected in the sedimentary sequence. • Mid-Holocene volcanic activity forced hydro-sedimentary dynamics in the catchment. • Breaks in erosion and lake low-stands were detected in the Late Holocene. • The basin was drained in the Early Iron age, centuries before previously estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wetlands are recognized for the importance of their hydrological function and biodiversity, and there is now a consensus to protect and restore them as well as to complete the knowledge on their functioning. Here, we studied the dissolved organic matter (DOM) of a wetland composed of the Auzon cut-off meander, the Allier River, the alluvial fluvial flow, and watershed aquifer. Water was sampled at different locations, in spring, summer, and autumn. For each sample, DOM was characterized for its chemical and optical properties and its photooxidant capacity through its ability to generate DOM triplet excited states ( 3 DOM*) and singlet oxygen upon simulated solar light exposure. UV-visible and fluorescence indices revealed that DOM was mainly microbial-derived whatever the sampling sites with spatial and temporal variations in terms of aromaticity (5.5-22%), specific UV absorbance at 254 nm (0.28-2.82 L m -1 mgC -1 ), ratio of the absorbance at 254 and 365 nm (4.6-10.8), fluorescence index (1.35-166), and biological index (0.812-2.25). All the samples generated 3 DOM* and singlet oxygen, rates of formation of which showed parallel variations. Using principal component analysis (PCA), we found positive correlations between the sensitizing properties of DOM samples and parameters associated to the abundance of low molecular weight and low absorbing chromophores. Moreover, the parameter variation across the wetland reinforced the hydrological movements observed in a previous study, suggesting that these parameters could be used as water connection tracers.