Why is Stream Ecology Important? : Research on stream ecology is beneficial for all organisms on Earth, especially humans. Rivers and streams provide life and livelihood to the people who live around them; they provide food, transportation, and other services that contribute to the well-being of humankind.
Why is stream biodiversity important?
Healthy streams foster healthy rivers, lakes, and estuaries. But streams are also vital ecosystems on their own, providing wildlife habitat, protecting us from floods and supplying much of our drinking water. Many freshwater fish depend on streams for habitat.
Why are streams and rivers important for ecosystems?
Rivers provide important benefits—called ecosystem services—that impact our day-to-day lives. They provide drinking water, irrigation, transportation, and more. They also provide habitat for important fish species.
What do stream ecologists do?
A stream ecologist may conduct surveys of stream life, run statistical analysis, or do research studies. It is interesting to work from a boat, wade through streams, or even work in a laboratory using special tanks that imitate stream and river habitats.
What three things a healthy stream will do for an ecosystem?
Absorb runoff water and reduce downstream flooding. Stabilize streambanks and prevent or reduce streambank erosion. Provide wildlife habitat (cover and food sources)
Why is river ecology important?
Rivers are home to some of the most diverse and endangered wildlife on Earth. Freshwater habitats account for some of the richest biodiversity in the world, and rivers are a vital, vibrant ecosystem for many species.
What are the advantages of streams?
STREAMS offers two major benefits for applications programmers: Easy creation of modules that offer standard data communications services. See Creating Service Interfaces. The ability to manipulate those modules on a stream.
What are the characteristics of streams?
To qualify as a stream, a body of water must be either recurring or perennial. Recurring (intermittent) streams have water in the channel for at least part of the year. A stream of the first order is a stream which does not have any other recurring or perennial stream feeding into it.
Do streams have high biodiversity?
Ponds, lakes, rivers, and streams cover only a tiny fraction of Earth's surface, yet they are home to a comparatively large number of different species, according to a study.
What are the 3 types of streams?
One method of classifying streams is through physical, hydrological, and biological characteristics. Using these features, streams can fall into one of three types: perennial, intermittent, and ephemeral.
Why is a healthy stream important?
Healthy streams and riparian corridors provide critical habitat and connectivity for terrestrial and aquatic life to thrive and move across the landscape. Forested stream buffers also moderate the water temperature, which is critically important for fish populations and the overall health of aquatic ecosystems.
Why is stream quality important?
Since live stream quality is so important to the viewer, it should be important to broadcasters, as well. Research shows that professional broadcasters risk losing up to 25% of their revenue when the quality of their streams is less than desirable.
What is stream ecosystem?
The stream ecosystem can be defined as a single riffle for a day or as 100km of a stream-floodplain landscape for a century. From: Encyclopedia of Inland Waters, 2009.
What is stream and river ecosystem?
River ecosystems are part of larger watershed networks or catchments, where smaller headwater streams drain into mid-size streams, which progressively drain into larger river networks. The major zones in river ecosystems are determined by the river bed's gradient or by the velocity of the current.
What ecosystem services do rivers provide?
Direct valued uses include water supply, transportation, recreation, and fishing. Indirect valued uses include flood protection, nutrient recycling, genetic material, and wetlands. Existence services are river services that provide the needed habitat to allow current biological ecosystems and their species to thrive.
What ecosystem is established in river and stream?
On the continents, aquatic ecosystems are of two kinds: lotic ecosystems, in which the water is free-flowing (streams and rivers), and lentic ecosystems, in which the water is relatively stationary. The scientists who specialize in aquatic ecosystems are limnologists.
What are rivers and streams?
What Are Streams and Rivers? A stream is a body of freshwater that flows downhill in a channel. The channel of a stream has a bottom, or bed, and sides called banks. Any size body of flowing water can be called a stream. Usually, though, a large stream is called a river.
What is stream ecology?
Ecology is the scientific study of the interactions between organisms and their environment (including other organisms); therefore, stream ecology encompasses the full field of ecology using flowing waters as the system of study. A stream is the broad term applied to running waters of all sorts; streams may also be named rivers, creeks, brooks, etc., according to the size of the stream. The subdisciplines of stream ecology include all processes from evolutionary ecology to ecosystem and global scales. Stream ecology also includes the study of how energy and nutrients move through flowing, freshwater ecosystems and are captured by organisms directly from the environment (plants) or through their food (animals, fungi, bacteria, and protists). Stream ecologists also study how different organisms interact with each other to understand the interconnections and impacts, such as how the numbers and sizes of each species are influenced by its prey, its competitors and predators, and even diseases. All of this study allows us to predict how changes to the environment or abundances of species may affect the biological diversity, productivity, and stability of freshwater ecosystems. This gives us the ability to manage wisely and to know how to protect these important ecosystems. Particular features of streams create different challenges and solutions for life in a moving environment that give additional insights into ecological processes and their controls. Stream ecology is allied with limnology and is considered a component of limnology by some; however, limnology strictly means the “study of lakes.” Although many of the same ecological research themes are present in lakes and streams, this article distinguishes between these two subdisciplines of freshwater biology and focuses on streams. Some authors will refer to lotic ecology, or lotic ecosystems, in which “lotic” refers to flowing water, in contrast to “lentic,” or still-water ecosystems such as lakes and wetlands. Stream ecology also includes stream biogeochemistry and is linked closely to physical sciences such as hydrology and fluvial geomorphology.
What is the book "Streams" about?
This book provides a detailed reference to details of streams, primarily large streams, in North America, including human history, hydrology, and biology.
What are the characteristics of desert stream ecosystems?
Desert stream ecosystems support a diverse assemblage of riparian plants and stream biota. A unifying characteristic of desert stream organisms is the shared evolutionary history in a hydrologically extreme environment. The consequences of this extreme physical template are evident from the variety of adaptations that allow species to thrive in systems prone to flash flooding and prolonged drought. Rather than providing a list of taxonomic names for each group, we place emphasis on life history, behavioral, and morphological adaptations for living in hydrologically variable ecosystems.
How does riparian vegetation affect the geomorphology of desert streams?
Desert riparian zones (both in-channel and floodplain) exhibit alternative stable states where abundant vegetation reduces geomorphic change during flooding, resulting in increased productivity and further stabilization from catastrophic erosional events that remove vegetation ( Heffernan, 2008 ). Periods of high macrophyte abundance lead to shallower and wider channels with greater hydraulic retention times in the channel ( Harvey et al., 2003 ). Stream algal productivity also is more resilient to hydrologic disturbance in areas of higher primary production associated with hyporheic upwelling ( Valett et al., 1994 ).
What is DOM in a stream?
In stream ecosystems dissolved organic matter (DOM) is often a large proportion of total organic material standing stocks and is almost always the predominant component of downstream carbon flux (Webster and Meyer 1997 ). Typically, the concentration of DOM in headwater streams range from 1 to 5 mg/L of carbon, while streams draining high-organic soils or vegetated wetlands may have concentrations approaching 50 mg/L ( Figure 11.1A ). As an example, a stream with an average of 0.5 m water column and 2.5 mg/L carbon, translates into 2.5 g of carbon m −2. Typically, this organic matter standing stock is small relative to particulate matter in debris dams but may be large relative to fine particles or algal biomass. In fact, the ratio of DOC to POC in transport is almost always >1 ( Meybeck 1982 ). Indeed, the quantity of DOC passing a given point in a stream is typically severalfold greater than for POC, except under conditions of high flows carrying peak loads of suspended particles. As the flux of DOM is often the largest term in stream material budgets, one of the challenges facing stream ecologists has been detecting relatively small rates of DOM addition or removal given a large and typically variable background flux.
How do macrophytes affect stream ecosystems?
Where macrophytes are present they have important influences on stream ecology by affecting bed substrate composition and modifying local flow conditions (Figure 18.1 ). Water velocity is reduced in macrophyte beds and fine particulate matter settles to the bottom (Sand-Jensen and Mebus 1996, Sand-Jensen 1998, Clarke 2002) where macrophyte roots help to stabilize the bed. Organic matter and associated nutrients tend to be recycled rapidly by the rich invertebrate and microbial communities in macrophyte beds ( Chambers and Prepas 1994, Clarke 2002 ). Macroinvertebrates feed on the abundant microorganisms and periphyton, and perhaps directly on macrophyte tissues; though macroinvertebrate diversity may be lower in some macrophyte environments. As a consequence, fish tend to be more abundant in streams where macrophytes are also abundant because there is more food and better cover (i.e., hiding places). Overall, the presence of macrophytes creates more diverse stream habitats which benefit a wide range of other stream organisms.
How are macrophytes and bryophytes similar?
The effects of macrophytes and bryophytes in stream ecosystems are similar in many ways. One of the most important differences may be their effects on the nutrient quality of organic matter produced through litterfall. Compared to macrophytes, very little is known about the ways in which bryophyte litter decomposes.
What is the importance of hydrologic exchange in arid streams?
Research in arid stream ecosystems has shown that hydrologic exchange between surface and subsurface waters has important implications for ecological and biogeochemical processes. Algal productivity is commonly nitrogenlimited in desert streams ( Grimm and Fisher, 1986 ). Hyporheic flowpaths are hot spots of nitrate production in desert stream ecosystems due to high nitrification rates coupled with mineralization of surficial dissolved or particulate organic N ( Holmes et al., 1994) in microbially active subsurface sediments ( Grimm and Fisher, 1984 ). Reaches with hyporheic discharge, which is determined by stream geomorphology, therefore have greater primary production due to greater nitrate loading ( Valett et al., 1994 ).
Why are macrophytes more abundant in streams?
As a consequence, fish tend to be more abundant in streams where macrophytes are also abundant because there is more food and better cover (i.e., hiding places). Overall, the presence of macrophytes creates more diverse stream habitats which benefit a wide range of other stream organisms. FIGURE 18.1.
Streamflow and the Water Cycle
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Importance of rivers
Rivers are invaluable to not only people, but to life everywhere. Not only are rivers a great place for people (and their dogs) to play, but people use river water for drinking-water supplies and irrigation water, to produce electricity, to flush away wastes (hopefully, but not always, treated wastes), to transport merchandise, and to obtain food.
Streamflow is always changing
Streamflow is always changing, from day to day and even minute to minute. Of course, the main influence on streamflow is precipitation runoff in the watershed.
Hydrologists study streamflows with hydrographs
USGS uses a hydrograph to study streamflow in rivers. A hydrograph is a chart showing, most often, river stage (height of the water above an arbitrary altitude) and streamflow (amount of water, usually in cubic feet per second). Other properties, such as rainfall and water-quality parameters can also be plotted.
Precipitation influences streamflow
On Dec. 24, 2002, about two inches of rainfall fell in the Peachtree Creek watershed. This provides a good example to describe streamflow characteristics during a storm since the rain fell for only a few hours on that day and Peachtree Creek was at base-flow conditions before the rain started.
Mechanisms that cause changes in streamflow
Rivers are always moving, which is good for everything, as stagnant water doesn't stay fresh and inviting very long. There are many factors, both natural and human-induced, that cause rivers to continuously change:
Streamflow and global water distribution
Even though the water flowing in rivers is tremendously valuable to not only people but also to much of life on Earth, it makes up just a miniscule amount of Earth's water.
How does urban development affect the biological health of streams?
Urban development is strongly associated with stream degradation, and much of that impact is due to storm water runoff from impervious surfaces (basically roads, parking lots, sidewalks, buildings, and other hard surfaces). Salt and other minerals applied to roads are also bad for many aquatic organisms. Stream invertebrate communities begin to change when as little as 2.5% of a watershed is covered by impervious surfaces.
What are the benefits of stream ecosystems?
Healthy streams can supply clean water for drinking, agriculture, recreation, and industry. They also provide habitat for aquatic animals, including fish prized for their food and recreation value. Scientists have developed ways to assess stream health by censusing the aquatic animal communities in human-impacted streams and comparing to the communities in pristine natural streams. Such efforts often focus on the stream invertebrate community, which includes aquatic insects, crayfish, and mussels. Some of these species are sensitive to water pollution, while others can tolerate polluted water. The relative abundance of sensitive and tolerant species speaks volumes about the health of the stream. Stream invertebrates are also important food resources for fish.
What are the invertebrate communities in a stream?
Such efforts often focus on the stream invertebrate community, which includes aquatic insects, crayfish, and mussels. Some of these species are sensitive to water pollution, while others can tolerate polluted water. The relative abundance of sensitive and tolerant species speaks volumes about the health of the stream.
How do human activities affect streams?
Human activities can change streams. The most obvious changes are physical, like the widening and deepening of this stream from erosion driven by storm water runoff. Looking below the surface can reveal changes in the species and numbers of aquatic animals inhabiting the stream.
Is salt bad for aquatic organisms?
Salt and other minerals applied to roads are also bad for many aquatic organisms. Stream invertebrate communities begin to change when as little as 2.5% of a watershed is covered by impervious surfaces. Our current research explores how impervious surfaces affect the trait diversity of stream invertebrates.
