Aiming to describe the role of dominant ecological factors and of human activities on the organisms of running water and the functioning of the ecosystem, this work covers the few European water courses that are well known in ecological studies.

■ Content
• Chapter 1 Running water: agent of erosion, transport and redistribution of materials of the earth's crust
1. The water cycle
2. Erosion, transport and redistribution of materials
2.1. Force of moving water
2.2. Load limit and competence of current
2.3. Modes of material transport
3. Transport in solution
4. Chemical characteristics of continental waters
5. Assessment of material transport
• Chapter 2 General characteristics of hydrographic networks
1. Drainage of watersheds
2. Flow of water
2.1. Flow in the substrate 2.2. Sub-flow2.3. Flow in the plains
3. Water regime
3.1. Nival regime
3.2. Oceanic pluvial regime
3.3. Mediterranean regime
3.4. Watersheds with multiple regimes
4. Temperature of running waters
5. Correlations between parameters in running water
• Chapter 3 Organisms and ecosystems of running water
1. Marine and freshwater organisms
2. Oceanic, lacustrine, and running-water ecosystems
2.1. Functioning of terrestrial, oceanic, and lacustrine ecosystems
2.2. Functioning of running-water ecosystems
2.3. Conclusions Chapter 4 Current and benthic organisms: chronic instability of the surface horizon of the substrate1. Adaptation to the current
2. Drift of benthic organisms
2.1. Forms of drift
2.2. Floods and drift
2.3. Assessment of drift
3. Origin of superficial benthic population
• Chapter 5 The hyporheic environment: continuity of the substrate
1. Hyporheic fauna of superficial origin
2. Stygobious fauna of subterranean origin
3. Distribution of fauna in the hyporheic environment
3.1. Origin of waters
3.2. Granulometry of the substrate
4. Origin and biogeography of stygobious fauna 4.1. Stygobious fauna originating from surface waters4.2. Stygobia of marine origin
5. Conclusions
• Chapter 6 Macrophytes of running waters: a substrate for algae and fauna
1. Bryophytes
1.1. Colonization of the substrate
1.2. Population of Bryophytes
2. Spermatophytes with rooted plant life
2.1. Colonization of the stream environment
2.2. Fauna of rooted vegetation
• Chapter 7 Life in the water trail: plankton
1. Transit time and development of plankton
2. Modelling of phytoplankton development and seasonal successions
3. Conclusions
• Chapter 8 Fish of running waters 1. Swimming and the water current2. Distribution of fish on a longitudinal profile
3. Migration of fish
4. Geographical distribution of fish
5. Conclusions
• Chapter 9 Temperature, biological cycles and distribution of organisms
1. Temperature and development of organisms
1.1. Temperature thresholds and temperature of maximum activity
1.2. Lethal temperatures, limits of indefinite survival and population growth rates
1.3. Temperature and time of development
2. Biological cycles: quiescence, diapause, mono- and polyvoltinism
2.1. Biological cycle of species with diapause