Ecology of Running Water
Running water in streams and rivers is an important feature of the southern Appalachian landscape. It also plays an important role in the hydrologic cycle of the earth. Streams are organized on the landscape in drainages.
Key aspects of stream and river ecology are:
Streams and rivers are strongly influenced by the landscapes that they drain, and exhibit considerable variation from headwaters to larger rivers. The River Continuum Concept (Vannote and others 1980) is a useful framework for understanding changes in aquatic ecosystem processes, such as organic matter inputs, that correspond to changes in geophysical characteristics occurring longitudinally along stream courses. In turn, biological communities dependent on aquatic environments show similar longitudinal variation.
Encyclopedia ID: p1482
