A
stream is a flowing body of
water with a
current, confined within a
bed and
stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a
branch,
brook,
beck,
burn,
creek,
kill,
lick,
rill,
river syke,
bayou,
rivulet, or
run. In some countries or communities a stream may be defined by its size. In the
United States a stream is classified as a watercourse less than 60 feet (18 metres) wide.
Streams are important as conduits in the
water cycle, instruments in
groundwater recharge, and they serve as corridors for
fish and
wildlife migration. The biological
habitat in the immediate vicinity of a stream is called a
riparian zone. Given the status of the ongoing
Holocene extinction event, streams play an important
corridor role in connecting
fragmented habitats and thus in conserving
biodiversity. Stream is an umbrella term used in the scientific community for all flowing natural waters, regardless of size. The study of streams and waterways in general is known as
surface hydrology and is a core element of
environmental geography.
Types
thumb|250px|Creek at the Uluguru Mountains which forms the Ruvu riverright|thumb|220px|[[Wyming Brook in
Sheffield,
UK]]
River: A large natural stream, which may be a
waterway.
Creek:*In North America and Australia, a small to medium sized natural stream. Sometimes navigable by motor craft and may be intermittent. *In parts of
New England, the UK and India, a
tidal inlet, typically in a
salt marsh or
mangrove swamp, or between enclosed and drained former salt marshes or swamps (e.g. Port Creek separating
Portsea Island from the mainland). In these cases, the stream is the tidal stream, the course of the
seawater through the
creek channel at low and high tide.
Tributary: A contributory stream, or a stream which does not reach the sea but joins another river (a parent river). Sometimes also called a branch or fork. Brook: A stream smaller than a
creek, especially one that is fed by a
spring or
seep. It is usually small and easily
forded. A brook is characterized by its shallowness and its
bed being composed primarily of rocks.
Other names
In the
United Kingdom, there are several regional names for a stream:
- Bourne is used in the chalk downland of southern England (although strictly a bourne is wet in summer and dry in winter).
- Brook is used in the Midlands, Lancashire and Cheshire.
- Syke is used in lowland Scotland and Cumbria.
In
North America:
- Bourn in Cascadia refers mostly to wide but relatively short, stilly streams with broad, rocky and gravelly beaches/banks, uneven bottoms very deep in some places but dappled with small, rocky aights, with uncommonly clear water except for adjacent pools filled with debris and plant life in which fishes and amphibians spawn. Often a distributary of a river and a tributary of a coastal or lakeside marsh, or, somewhat less frequently, an "independent" (not especially near a lake or ocean) swamp or other wetland.
- Branch, fork, or prong can refer to tributaries or distributaries that share the same name as the main stream, generally with the addition of a cardinal direction.
Parts of a stream
Spring: The point at which a stream emerges from an underground course through unconsolidated
sediments or through caves. A stream can, especially with
caves, flow aboveground for part of its course, and underground for part of its course.
Source: The spring from which the stream originates, or other point of origin of a stream.
Headwaters: The part of a stream or river proximate to its source. The word is most commonly used in the plural where there is no single
point source.
Confluence: The point at which the two streams merge. If the two tributaries are of approximately equal size, the confluence may be called a fork. Run: A somewhat smoothly flowing segment of the stream.
Pool: A segment where the water is deeper and slower moving.
Riffle: A segment where the flow is shallower and more
turbulent.
Channel: A depression created by constant
erosion that carries the stream's flow.
Floodplain: Lands adjacent to the stream that are subject to
flooding when a stream overflows its banks.
Stream bed: The bottom of a stream.
Gauging station: A point of demarkation along the route of a stream or river, used for reference marking or water monitoring.
Thalweg: The river's longitudinal section, or the line joining the deepest point in the channel at each stage from source to mouth.
Wetted perimeter: The line on which the stream's surface meets the channel walls.
Nickpoint: The point on a stream's profile where a sudden change in
stream gradient occurs.
Waterfall or
cascade: The fall of water where the stream goes over a sudden drop called a nickpoint; some nickpoints are formed by erosion when water flows over an especially resistant
stratum, followed by one less so. The stream expends
kinetic energy in "trying" to eliminate the nickpoint. Mouth: The point at which the stream discharges, possibly via an
estuary or
delta, into a static body of water such as a
lake or
ocean.
Sources
Streams typically derive most of their water from
precipitation in the form of
rain and
snow. Most of this water re-enters the atmosphere by
evaporation from soil and water bodies, or by the
evapotranspiration of plants. Some of the water proceeds to sink into the earth by
infiltration and becomes
groundwater, much of which eventually enters streams. Some precipitated water is temporarily locked up in snow fields and
glaciers, to be released later by evaporation or melting. The rest of the water flows off the land as
runoff, the proportion of which varies according to many factors, such as wind, humidity, vegetation, rock types, and relief. This runoff starts as a thin film called sheet wash, combined with a network of tiny rills, together constituting sheet runoff; when this water is concentrated in a channel, a stream has its birth.
Characteristics
Ranking : To qualify as a stream it must be either recurring or perennial. Recurring streams have water in the channel for at least part of the year. A stream of the
first order is a stream which does not have any other stream feeding into it. When two first-order streams come together, they form a second-order stream. When two second-order streams come together, they form a third-order stream. Streams of lower order joining a higher order stream do not change the order of the higher stream. Thus, if a first-order stream joins a second-order stream, it remains a second-order stream. It is not until a second-order stream combines with another second-order stream that it becomes a third-order stream.
Gradient : The
gradient of a stream is a critical factor in determining its character and is entirely determined by its
base level of
erosion. The base level of erosion is the point at which the stream either enters the ocean, a lake or pond, or enters a stretch in which it has a much lower gradient, and may be specifically applied to any particular stretch of a stream.
In geologic terms, the stream will erode down through its bed to achieve the base level of erosion throughout its course. If this base level is low, then the stream will rapidly cut through underlying strata and have a steep gradient, and if the base level is relatively high, then the stream will form a flood plain and meander.
Meander :
Meanders are looping changes of direction of a stream caused by the erosion and deposition of bank materials. These are typically serpentine in form. Typically, over time the meanders gradually migrate downstream.
If some resistant material slows or stops the downstream movement of a meander, a stream may erode through the neck between two legs of a meander to become temporarily straighter, leaving behind an arc-shaped body of water termed an
oxbow lake or
bayou. A flood may also cause a meander to be cut through in this way.
Profile : Typically, streams are said to have a particular
profile, beginning with steep gradients, no flood plain, and little shifting of
channels, eventually evolving into streams with low gradients, wide flood plains, and extensive meanders. The initial stage is sometimes termed a "young" or "immature" stream, and the later state a "mature" or "old" stream. However, a stream may meander for some distance before falling into a "young" stream condition.
Intermittent and ephemeral streams
An Australian creek, low in the dry season, carrying little water. The energetic flow of the stream had, in flood, moved finer sediment further downstream. There is a pool to lower right and a riffle to upper left of the photograph.
In the
United States, an
intermittent stream is one that only flows for part of the year and is marked on
topographic maps with a line of blue dashes and dots. A
wash or
desert wash is normally a dry streambed in the
deserts of the
American Southwest which flows only after significant rainfall. Washes can fill up quickly during rains, and there may be a sudden torrent of water after a
thunderstorm begins upstream, such as during
monsoonal conditions. These
flash floods often catch travelers by surprise. An intermittent stream can also be called an
arroyo in
Latin America, a
winterbourne in Britain, or a
wadi in the
Arabic-speaking world.
In
Italy an intermittent stream is termed a
torrent . In full flood the stream may or may not be "torrential" in the dramatic sense of the word, but there will be one or more seasons in which the flow is reduced to a trickle or less. Typically torrents have
Apennine rather than
Alpine sources, and in the summer they are fed by little precipitation and no melting snow. In this case the maximum discharge will be during the spring and autumn. However there are also glacial torrents with a different seasonal regime.
A
blue-line stream is one which flows for most or all of the year and is marked on topographic maps with a solid blue line. In
Australia, an intermittent stream is usually called a creek and marked on topographic maps with a solid blue line.
Generally, streams that flow only during and immediately after precipitation are termed
ephemeral. There is no clear demarkation between surface runoff and ephemeral stream.
Drainage basins
The extent of land basin drained by a stream is termed its
drainage basin (also known in North America as the
watershed and, in British English, as a
catchment). A basin may also be composed of smaller basins. For instance, the
Continental Divide in
North America divides the mainly easterly-draining
Atlantic Ocean and
Arctic Ocean basins from the largely westerly-flowing
Pacific Ocean basin. The Atlantic Ocean basin, however, may be further subdivided into the Atlantic Ocean and
Gulf of Mexico drainages. (This delineation is termed the
Eastern Continental Divide.) Similarly, the Gulf of Mexico basin may be divided into the
Mississippi River basin and several smaller basins, such as the
Tombigbee River basin. Continuing in this vein, a component of the Mississippi River basin is the
Ohio River basin, which in turn includes the
Kentucky River basin, and so forth.
See also
