Ten simple rules to host an inclusive conference.

Conferences are spaces to meet and network within and across academic and technical fields, learn about new advances, and share our work. They can help define career paths and create long-lasting collaborations and opportunities. However, these opportunities are not equal for all. This article introduces 10 simple rules to host an inclusive conference based on the authors' recent experience organizing the 2021 edition of the useR! statistical computing conference, which attracted a broad range of participants from academia, industry, government, and the nonprofit sector. Coming from different backgrounds, career stages, and even continents, we embraced the challenge of organizing a high-quality virtual conference in the context of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and making it a kind, inclusive, and accessible experience for as many people as possible. The rules result from our lessons learned before, during, and after the organization of the conference. They have been written mainly for potential organizers and selection committees of conferences and contain multiple practical tips to help a variety of events become more accessible and inclusive. We see this as a starting point for conversations and efforts towards building more inclusive conferences across the world. * Translated versions of the English abstract and the list of rules are available in 10 languages in S1 Text: Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Tamil, and Thai

Trace metals and aquatic invertebrates in a floodplain: from chemical speciation to community composition

Trace metals occur naturally in aquatic systems under different forms (dissolved, bound to suspended particulate matter or sediment) and they interact with organisms in these systems. This thesis aims to improve our mechanistic understanding of the distribution of trace metals in floodplains and their interactions with aquatic invertebrates. The study system was the French Rhône floodplain that harbors secondary channels with various characteristics. An interdisciplinary approach integrating tools from environmental chemistry, ecotoxicology and ecology allowed to characterize metals in different floodplain water bodies and to construct models for the quantitative link between concentrations in the environment and concentrations found in different aquatic invertebrates. Two case studies allowed to test the impact of perturbations on the patterns described above. The results have potential implications for risk assessment and for floodplain restoration

Ecology and Conservation of freshwater gastropods in the Upper Rhône floodplain, with special emphasis on the threatened Anisus vorticulus (Troschel, 1834)

Malgré des changements la plaine alluviale du Haut-Rhône français abrite des habitats diversifiés pour les gastéropodes. En outre, le Haut-Rhône abrite A.vorticulus, une espèce inscrite dans la directive Habitats européenne(annexes II et IV).La présente étude vise à approfondir les connaissances sur l'ensemble de la communauté de gastéropodes de la zone alluviale du Haut-Rhône français et sur des aspects peu connus de la biologie de A.vorticulus. Trois aspects de l'écologie des gastéropodes d'eau douce sont éxplorés: les facteurs environmentaux, les relations spatiales et la co-occurrence des espèces. Des arbres de régression boostés sont utilisés pour explorer les préférences écologiques. Le gradient de connectivité latéral est le facteur environmental le plus important. L'analyse spatiale porte à la fois sur la communauté et sur les espèces. Je teste si la communauté montre des effets de distance (distance decay) et si les espèces sont limitées dans leur dispersion. L'effet de distance est observé seulement dans les sites avec un lien faible avec le fleuve. Les résultats montrent aussi que la dispersion est un problème pour certaines espèces rares. Des espèces focales (surrogate species) potentielles sont testées avec une analyse de co-occurrence. L'analyse typologique montre cinq groupes distincts dans la communauté de gastéropodes et des tests montrent que certaines de ces interactions sont significatives. La richesse globale, l'unicité des gastéropodes et la valeur de conservation d'un site ne peuvent pas être déduits de la présence d'une seule espèce. La présence - au niveau de la plaine alluviale - d'espèces de tous les groupes est un meilleur indicateur de la naturalité de la plaine alluviale. A.vorticulus montre une limitation de la dispersion et constitue une mauvaise espèce focale pour la richesse globale

Lateral and longitudinal patterns of water physico-chemistry and trace metal distribution and partitioning in a large river floodplain

Floodplain water bodies provide habitat to diversified ecological communities. Floodplains are also among the most impacted aquatic ecosystems. While the link between the lateral connectivity of floodplain sites to the main channel and their plant, fish and invertebrate communities was well established, detailed information on chemical characteristics and particularly on trace metal spatial distribution and partitioning is scarce. The aim of this study was to examine the link between the lateral connectivity and physico-chemical variables, their trace metal concentrations and partitioning as well as the upstream-downstream gradient of these parameters. In connected and disconnected water bodies of the Rhône River upstream and downstream of the city of Lyon, we measured major ions, dissolved organic carbon, trace metal concentrations (Al, Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb and U) in water, suspended particulate matter (SPM) and sediment. The results revealed a clear difference between connected and disconnected water bodies. pH, SPM, Na+, and NO3- concentrations were lower in disconnected sites while conductivity, DOC, Ca2+ and Mg2+ were higher. Conductivity and a part of the major ion concentrations increased in the downstream sections. Trace metal concentrations and partitioning varied between connected and disconnected sites. In the dissolved fraction, trace metal concentrations were higher in connected sites. In the surface sediment, concentrations were higher in disconnected sites for the majority of metals. The upstream-downstream gradient was less important than the connected-disconnected gradient. Only three metals in the dissolved fraction (Cu, Cd and Pb) showed a clear increase in downstream sections. Overall, the study shows that the functioning of floodplains produces strong spatial patterns concerning the concentrations and partitioning of trace metals. These findings improve our understanding of trace metal biogeochemistry in floodplains and have important applications for floodplain restoration projects

Modeling whole body trace metal concentrations in aquatic invertebrate communities: A trait-based approach

Trace metal risk assessment and environmental quality standard definition require realistic models that quantify metal exposure and accumulation by biota. In the present study we propose a novel trait-based approach to predict whole body concentrations of metals in aquatic invertebrates from concentrations measured in different environmental compartments. Field data from a large riverine floodplain was used to calibrate and test the model. The prediction performance of the trait-based model was unbiased and uncertainty was below the twofold of measured concentrations for the four studied metals (Ni, Cu, Cd, Pb). The relative contribution of feeding, respiration and locomotion patterns as well as metal concentrations in three environmental compartments provided insights into the importance of different uptake pathways. The relation with the sediment (i.e., to what degree taxa live in or directly on the sediment) was shown to be the most important trait to predict metal accumulation. Overall, this study demonstrated the potential use of bioecological traits for the modeling of whole body metal concentrations of entire aquatic invertebrate communities

Biofilm composition in the Olt River (Romania) reservoirs impacted by chlor-alkali production plant

Freshwater biofilms can be useful indicators of water quality and offer the possibility to assess contaminant effects at the community level. The present field study examines the effect of chlor-alkali plant effluents on the community composition of biofilms grown in Olt River (Romania) reservoirs. The relationship between ambient water quality variables and community composition alterations was explored. Amplicon sequencing revealed a significant modification of the composition of microalgal, bacterial and fungal communities in the biofilms collected in the impacted reservoirs in comparison with those living in the uncontaminated control reservoir. The abundance corrected Simpson index showed lower richness and diversity in biofilms collected in the impacted reservoirs than in the control reservoir. Biofilm bacterial communities of the impacted reservoirs were characterized by the contaminant-tolerant Cyanobacteria and Bacteroidetes, whereas microalgal community were predominantly composed of Bacillariophyta and fungal communities of Lecanoromycetes and Paraglomycetes. A principal component analysis revealed that major contaminants present in the waste water of the chlor-alkali production plant, i.e. Na+, Ca2+, Cl- and Hg, were correlated with alteration of biofilm community composition in the impacted reservoirs. However, the biofilm composition was also influenced by water quality variables such as NO3-, SO42-, DOC and Zn from unknown sources. The results of the present study imply that, even when below the environmental quality standards, typical contaminants of chlor-alkali plant releases may affect biofilm composition and that their impacts on the microbial biodiversity might be currently overlooked