Ecological assessment of running waters: Do macrophytes, macroinvertebrates, diatoms and fish show similar responses to human pressures?

► Macrophyte, fish, diatom and macroinvertebrate responses to human-induced pressures were compared. ► Natural environmental variability was discarded from the analysis. ► Functional trait-based metrics were the most sensitive to changes. ► Depending on their ecological and biological characteristics, biological groups showed different responses. ► Multi-impacted sites had to be removed from the analysis to detect specific pressures.