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A river is a natural freshwater stream that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it runs out of water, or only flow during certain seasons.
There are three basic types of freshwater ecosystems: Lentic (slow moving water, including pools, ponds, and lakes), lotic (faster moving water, for example streams and rivers) and wetlands (areas where the soil is saturated or inundated for at least part of the time).
Other volcanic lakes are created when either rivers or streams are dammed by lava flows or volcanic lahars. [27] [29] [28] [30] The basin which is now Malheur Lake, Oregon was created when a lava flow dammed the Malheur River. [31] Among all lake types, volcanic crater lakes most closely approximate a circular shape. [3]
Freshwater lakes contain about 87% of this fresh surface water, including 29% in the African Great Lakes, 22% in Lake Baikal in Russia, 21% in the North American Great Lakes, and 14% in other lakes. Swamps have most of the balance with only a small amount in rivers, most notably the Amazon River. The atmosphere contains 0.04% water. [15]
the location where a river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, or reservoir. Distributary or distributary channel: a stream that branches off and flows away from the main stream channel. Drainage basin: a region of land where water from rain or snowmelt drains downhill into another body of water, such as a river, lake, or reservoir. Draw
The total volume of water in rivers is estimated at 2,120 km 3 (510 cu mi), or 0.49% of the surface fresh water on Earth. [2] Rivers and basins are often compared not according to their static volume, but to their flow of water, or surface run off. The distribution of river runoff across the Earth's surface is very uneven.
The term limnology was coined by François-Alphonse Forel (1841–1912) who established the field with his studies of Lake Geneva.Interest in the discipline rapidly expanded, and in 1922 August Thienemann (a German zoologist) and Einar Naumann (a Swedish botanist) co-founded the International Society of Limnology (SIL, from Societas Internationalis Limnologiae).
This stream operating together with its environment can be thought of as forming a river ecosystem. River ecosystems are flowing waters that drain the landscape, and include the biotic (living) interactions amongst plants, animals and micro-organisms, as well as abiotic (nonliving) physical and chemical interactions of its many parts.