Land-use in headwaters and distribution of the native white-clawed crayfish Austropotamobius pallipes (Lereboullet) in a stream from the Poitou-Charentes region
Résumé
Current ecological and physico-chemical water requirements of the white-clawed crayfish, Austropotamobius pallipes (Lereboullet), were investigated in western France and linked to a spatial analysis of the influence of land use on the distribution of the species along a stream. The study was conducted in the Clain catchment, located in the Poitou-Charentes Region, comprising the Magot stream, which is listed as a Natura 2000 SAC. Using the ArcView® GIS software (ESRI), different types of land use were described and their percentage estimated. Data were extracted at different scales by buffer analysis, using widths of 50 and 200 m. The results of this GIS based study indicate that in the Magot stream, natural habitats (forests and grasslands) appear to be favourable habitat for crayfish, while human-influenced habitats (garden/orchards) were not suitable.