AbstractThe effects of intermittent power generation on the fish fauna and benthic invertebrates of several Austrian rivers have been investigated quantitatively. In contrast to the more or less local adverse effects of impoundments or stream channelization, artificial flow fluctuations generally disturb a long section of a given river. Within all the river sections investigated, a breakdown of the benthic invertebrate biomass of between 75 and 95% was observed within the first few kilometres of river length. A reduction of between 40 and 60% of biomass compared with undisturbed areas could be detected within the following 20–40 km. The reduction of the fish fauna is within the same order of magnitude and correlates well with the amplitude of the flow fluctuations. Several reasons for the breakdown are summarized and proposals for the minimization of these detrimental effects of artificial short‐term fluctuations are gi