Overview of Streams and Rivers

Question 1

What is the definition of a river?

Answer 1

Rivers and streams are lotic or flowing water systems.

Question 2

Which rivers are the 3 biggest rivers in the us? (length)

Answer 2

1. Missouri
2. Mississippi
3. Yukon

Question 3

Which rivers are the 3 biggest rivers in the us? (discharge)

Answer 3

1. Mississippi
2. Ohio
3. St. Lawrence

Question 4

There are 5 streams hierarchical systems, name them in the order.

Answer 4

1. Stream segment
2. Segment system
3. Reach system
4. Pool/riffle system
5. Microhabitat system

Question 5

What are the 4 microhabitat systems?

Answer 5

• Riffle
• Run
• Pool
• Glide

Question 6

What are the 4-dimension of nature of streams?

Answer 6

• Longitudinal: Upstream - downstream
• Lateral: Riparian - channel
• Vertical: Channel - groundwater
• Temporal: Changes through time

Question 7

There are 7 types of rivers mentioned in lection 11, name 3.

Answer 7

• Temperate streams
• Springs
• Torrential Habitats and Waterfalls
• Madicolous habitats
• High latitude and altitude streams
• Arid land rivers
• Dams
• Large floodplan rivers

Question 8

Name an example of ecosystem manipulation in a stream or a river.

Answer 8

• Dam construction
• Channel straightening
• Riparian vegetation removal
• Introduction of non-native species
• Altering water flow through diversions
• Pollution discharge
• Gravel removal from the streambed
• Intensive fishing practices

Question 9

What are the characteristics of temperate streams?

Answer 9

○ Most widely studied lotic habitats
○ Course substrate
○ Relatively shallow
○ Riffle-pool sequences
○ Variable flow in space and time
○ Often flow from forested uplands to agricultural or urban landscapes

Question 10

What are the characteristics of springs?

Answer 10

○ Groundwater discharge at a fixed point
○ Flow, temperature and chemistry fairly constant
○ Ecological laboratories
○ More consistent because it comes from underground

Question 11

What are the characteristics of torrential habitats and waterfalls?

Answer 11

○ High velocities (between 0.5 m/sec – 6 m/sec)
○ High gas saturation
Which means a lot of oxygen

Question 12

What are the characteristics of madicolous habitats?

Answer 12

○ Thin sheet of water seeping over rocks
○ Mostly primary producers
▪ Moss and algae
○ And herbivores
▪ Insect larvae and snails
○ Could be the start of a spring

Question 13

What are the characteristics of high latitude and altitude streams?

Answer 13

○ Fed by melting glacial ice
▪ Flow max in summer (opposite of California rivers where there is more flow in the winter during the rain season)
○ Low temperatures and food levels
○ Turbid from fine inorganic glacial material
○ Low conductivity (low dissolved salts)
○ Unstable braided morphology

Question 14

What are the characteristics of arid land rivers?

Answer 14

○ Flow highly variable
○ May become dry, but unpredictably
○ Important for humans but very little known of their ecology
○ Heavily modified for human use via reservoirs and water removals