A hierarchical framework for stream habitat classification: Viewing streams in a watershed context

Environmental Management - Classification of streams and stream habitats is useful for research involving establishment of monitoring stations, determination of local impacts of land-use practices,...     

FORUM: Restoration of Stream Habitats in the Western United States: Restoration as Reexpression of Habitat Capacity

/ Ecological restoration is increasingly invoked as a tool for the maintenance and regeneration of biodiversity. Yet the conceptual foundations and assumptions underlying many restoration management activities are frequently unclear or unstated. Unforeseen, undesirable consequences of restoration activities may emerge as a result. A general conceptual framework for restoration is needed to better accommodate dynamic habitat systems and evolving biota in restoration strategies. A preliminary framework for stream habitat restoration emphasizing stream habitat-biota development is proposed. As developing systems, streams and stream biota exhibit temporal behaviors that change with stream environments. Underlying the dynamic development of streams is potential capacity. Streams express this capacity as an array of habitats over time and across the landscape. Human land uses in the western United States have rapidly altered aquatic habitats and the processes that shape habitat. As a result, the diversity of native fishes and their habitats has been suppressed. Restoration is fundamentally about allowing stream systems to reexpress their capacities. Several steps are provided to guide stream restoration activities. Key tasks include: identification of the historic patterns of habitat development; identification of developmental constraints; relief of those constraints; classification of sensitive, critical, or refuge habitats; protection of the developmental diversity that remains; and monitoring of biotic responses to habitat development. KEY WORDS: Stream habitat; Stream biota; System capacity; System development; Restoration; Classification     

太湖生物区系研究及与北美五大湖的比较

研究太湖水生生物区系特征,分析各类生物区系的变化及其原因,并与北美五大湖相应的水生生物区系进行了比较. 结果表明:太湖共有水生生物146科442种,其中鱼类25科107种,占24.2%; 底栖动物21科66种,占14.9%; 浮游动物37科103种,占23.3%; 浮游植物29科81种,占18.3%; 水生植物34科85种,占19.2%. 总体上太湖各类水生生物的种数和科数差别都不大,鱼类和浮游动物稍多. 北美五大湖各类水生生物的种数分别为鱼类134种、底栖动物165种、浮游动物132种以及浮游植物1 456种,除浮游植物种类较多外,其他3类水生生物的种数与太湖大致相当. 五大湖鱼类以鲑科和鲤科鱼类为主体,分别占鱼类总数的18.7%和20.1%,其中除伊利湖外其他4个湖都是鲑科占优势; 太湖鱼类以鲤科为主体,占鱼类总数的56.1%,这是太湖鱼类区系的主要特征,也是我国淡水鱼类的主要特征,所以鲤科是我国水质基准推导的优先选择物种. 太湖和五大湖中鱼类、底栖动物和浮游动物3类生物所占比例差别不大.