Phenology changes are increasingly recognized as a common response of species to ongoing global change. Phenology can be influenced by environmental cues that impact the initiation or duration of life history events as well as intrinsic organismal traits that may affect how different species respond to such environmental cues. Despite the importance of phenology for biodiversity conservation as demonstrated by terrestrial and marine research, freshwater phenology is understudied. Therefore, we conducted a literature review on freshwater phenology research to summarize the spatial, taxonomic and temporal biases of studies; as well as relationships between phenology metrics, environmental cues and intrinsic species traits studied in these systems. We find that phenology research in freshwaters may be limited by a lack of long‐term time‐series data, especially in lotic habitats. Phenology metrics studied differed between lotic and lentic habitats, with limnological research focused on planktonic population growth whereas macroinvertebrate emergence and fish spawning seasons are the most frequently studied aspects of phenology in streams and rivers. Across habitats, temperature is the most investigated environmental cue, with additional research attention to resources and hydrology in influencing phenology events in lentic and lotic environments, respectively. Knowledge gaps in contemporary freshwater phenology research include relationships between phenology and environmental cues in tropical systems, understanding of non‐salmonid fish phenology and testing hypotheses related to intrinsic traits. We recommend that future research broaden the biological, spatial and temporal scales of phenology studies in these systems, and make use of novel data sources, methods and technologies to address contemporary research gaps.

Species distribution models (SDMs) in river ecosystems can incorporate climate information by using air temperature and precipitation as surrogate measures of instream conditions or by using independent models of water temperature and hydrology to link climate to instream habitat. The latter approach is preferable but constrained by the logistical burden of developing water temperature and hydrology models. We therefore assessed whether regional scale, freshwater SDM predictions are fundamentally different when climate data versus instream temperature and hydrology are used as covariates. Maximum entropy (MaxEnt) SDMs were built for 15 freshwater fishes using one of two covariate sets: 1) air temperature and precipitation (climate variables) in combination with physical habitat variables; or 2) water temperature, hydrology (instream variables) and physical habitat. Three procedures were then used to compare results from climate vs instream models. First, equivalence tests assessed average pairwise differences (site‐specific comparisons throughout each species’ range) among climate and instream models. Second, ‘congruence’ tests determined how often the same stream segments were assigned high habitat suitability by climate and instream models. Third, Schoener's D and Warren's I niche overlap statistics quantified range‐wide similarity in predicted habitat suitability from climate vs instream models. Equivalence tests revealed small, pairwise differences in habitat suitability between climate and instream models (mean pairwise differences in MaxEnt raw scores for all species < 3 × 10–4). Congruence tests showed a strong tendency for climate and instream models to predict high habitat suitability at the same stream segments (median congruence = 68%). D and I statistics reflected a high margin of overlap among climate and instream models (median D = 0.78, median I = 0.96). Overall, we found little support for the hypothesis that SDM predictions are fundamentally different when climate versus instream covariates are used to model fish species’ distributions at the scale of the Columbia Basin.

Species’ distributions are influenced by abiotic and biotic factors but direct comparison of their relative importance is difficult, particularly when working with complex, multi‐species datasets. Here, we compare the relative effects of hydrology, physical habitat, and co‐occurring fish functional traits on the contemporary (1950–1990) distribution of the American eel Anguilla rostrata in six Mid‐Atlantic (USA) rivers. To do so, we implement a null model approach that compares conditions at sites of known American eel presence to a random sample of sites throughout a broader landscape, allowing us to identify variables that may have the strongest influences on American eel distribution. Results suggest that, within this subset of the American eel's geographic range, the functional characteristics of locally co‐occurring fishes and habitat fragmentation by dams may have the strongest influences on American eel distribution, compared to other predictor variables included in the analysis. Given the widespread distribution and complex biology of this species, we caution that our results may not apply to all American eel subpopulations or life stages. Nonetheless, the observed importance of co‐occurring fish functional traits may inform American eel conservation and, more generally, provide a means to incorporate biotic influences in research on species’ distributions.

Aim We examined the diversity–biomass relationship in stream fish communities and quantified direct and indirect effects of abiotic variables on this relationship. Location France. Time period 1992–2012. Major taxa studied Stream fishes. Methods We analysed the relationship between biodiversity (species richness and functional diversity) and fish community biomass at 1,357 stream sites distributed throughout France. We used piecewise path analysis to quantify effects of abiotic and biodiversity variables on biomass and assess relative contributions of native and non‐native species on the diversity–biomass relationship. Results Biodiversity showed a direct positive relationship with biomass after controlling for sampling effort, and direct effects of biodiversity variables on community biomass exceeded those of climate and physical habitat variables. Our analysis indicates that positive effects of species richness on biomass exceeded those of functional diversity. Indirect effects of abiotic variables mediated by biodiversity metrics indicated that biomass increased in warmer, lowland habitats. Human impact had no effect on native biodiversity but had a positive effect on non‐native biodiversity. Main conclusions We provide evidence that direct effects of biodiversity on community biomass outweigh those of abiotic variables in riverine fish communities, but resource partitioning alone is unlikely to drive the effects of biodiversity on biomass in this system. Quantification of the relative roles of anthropogenic impacts, biodiversity and environmental context in the regulation of ecosystem functioning will be necessary to understand the potential consequences of ongoing global change.

This dataset provides habitat, water parameters, and species of fishes collected monthly from 10 localities from 2015-2016. There are 101 collection events and over 10,000 fish specimens recorded.