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River with trees on the bank and a over cast sky

Rivers and streams

Rivers and streams, burns, brooks and springs – the names are varied but the flora and fauna all have to cope with the same thing: water that flows continuously in one direction. If you live here you need a way to avoid being washed downstream and ultimately into the sea. Plants and animals have to be able to cling on, hide away from the flow or swim against the current.

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What lives here?

Mammals

Birds

Reptiles

Amphibians

Cartilaginous fish

Ray-finned fishes

Lobe-finned fishes

Lampreys

Insects

Crabs, shrimp and krill

Merostomata

Where you find Rivers and streams

Map showing the location of the Rivers and streams habitat

About Rivers and streams

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including stream, creek, brook, rivulet, tributary and rill. There are no official definitions for generic terms, such as river, as applied to geographic features, although in some countries or communities a stream may be defined by its size. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location; one example is "burn" in Scotland and northeast England. Sometimes a river is said to be larger than a creek, but this is not always the case, because of vagueness in the language.

Rivers are part of the hydrological cycle. Water within a river is generally collected from precipitation through a drainage basin from surface runoff and other sources such as groundwater recharge, springs, and the release of stored water in natural ice and snowpacks (e.g., from glaciers). Potamology is the scientific study of rivers.

Read more at Wikipedia

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Ecozones

Ecozones where this habitat is found

Habitats

Other Freshwater habitats

Video collections

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