Research

Gaining Stream

Groundwater recharges stream

Losing Stream

Stream recharges groundwater

Characteristics of a healthy stream

• Flows retain much of their natural quantities and variability

• Sediments eroded and re-deposited

• Substrate, water temp and water quality remain within normal ranges

Streams are connected…

• Longitudinally from source to mouth

• Laterally with riparian zones, floodplains, and landscapes

• Vertically with groundwater sources

What characteristic of a stream often determines the velocity of its currents?

The slope or gradient

Reach

A section of stream with several runs, pools, and riffles

What does sediment deposition form along inner banks of streams?

Point bars

Sinuosity

The amount of curving or bending occurring in a stream (Channel distance/straightline downvalley distance)

Riffles

Areas of turbulent water

Examples of primary producers growing on rocks and rubble in streams

• diatoms

• cyanobacteria

• green algae

• water moss

Algae that grows on other algae is called

Epiphytic

Runs

Habitat areas that lead into or out of riffle areas

Pools

areas where the water has slowed down, containing much of the organic matter and sediments (areas of decomposition)

Substrate types from smallest to largest

clay < silt < muck < sand < gravel < cobble < boulder

Sites with the greatest heterogeneity of substrates have the

highest diversity of macroinvertebrates

Sandy bottom areas are low in production because they offer little

Substrate for the periphyton

Solid bedrock is directly exposed to currents thereby

Limiting the number of organisms that can remain attached

Gravel and cobble bottoms which are associated with fast streams support the most abundant life because

• They have the greatest surface area for periphyton

• They provide stability and protected areas for insect larvae

Embeddedness

The extent to which rocks (gravel, cobble, boulders) and snags are covered or sunken into the silt, sand or muck of the stream bottom

The more embedded, the more ___ the living conditions of creatures

unavailable

Observations of embeddedness should be taken in the ___ and ___ portions of riffles

Upstream and central

Hyporheic zone

The zone between the stream water and the groundwater

In slow water, rather than periphyton, what is the primary producer?

Phytoplankton

The basin or watershed of a stream can also be called the

Catchment

Ohio Ecoregions

HELP

Huron/Erie Lake Plains

EGLL

Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands

ECBP

Eastern Corn Belt Plains

WAP

Western Allegheny Plateau

IP

Interior Plateau

Older name for Erie Drift Plain

Erie/Ontario Lake Plain