Freshwater ecosystems are inland aquatic systems dominated by low-salinity water, encompassing rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, wetlands, and groundwater-dependent habitats. They are structured by hydrological regime, nutrient availability, light penetration, thermal stratification, and substrate characteristics, and support diverse communities of microorganisms, algae, macrophytes, invertebrates, fish, and amphibians. Biogeochemical processes in these systems, including primary production, decomposition, and nutrient cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, regulate water quality and contribute to regional and global elemental fluxes. Research on freshwater ecosystems examines food web dynamics, ecological resilience, responses to eutrophication, pollution, flow alteration, climate change, and their role in providing ecosystem services such as drinking water supply and biodiversity maintenance.
The presence of reeds, an exotic and invasive plant capable of altering the ecological balance in the natural environment, could have positive effects on fish populations in rivers. This is according to a study published ...
Ecology
Nov 7, 2025
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For the first time in more than a century, migrating salmon have climbed close to the headwaters of the Klamath River's most far-flung tributaries, as much as 360 miles from the Pacific Ocean in south-central Oregon. The ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 6, 2025
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20
A new study led by the University of Michigan shows that changes in climate are also changing the size of fishes in Michigan's inland lakes. Using data that covered 75 years and nearly 1,500 lakes, researchers have shown ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 5, 2025
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The California tiger salamander relies on seasonal ponds to breed. But for decades, the species has been under pressure from non-native salamanders introduced in the 1950s and 1960s for use as fishing bait.
Plants & Animals
Nov 4, 2025
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The Stream Ecology group of the University of the Basque Country (EHU) has tested various ways of measuring river quality in three streams in the Green Belt area of Vitoria-Gasteiz. Using these trials as the basis, the team ...
Ecology
Nov 3, 2025
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A new University of Kentucky study used environmental DNA (eDNA) to search 90 sites across 73 rivers for Eastern hellbenders—large, secretive salamanders nicknamed "snot otters" and "lasagna lizards" for their mucus secretions ...
Ecology
Oct 31, 2025
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The River Wye used to be full of wild salmon. Today it is full of algae.
Environment
Oct 23, 2025
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In the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the streams are telling us a story about forest recovery following acid rain and logging. According to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, long-term ...
Ecology
Oct 23, 2025
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197
Exotic marsh frogs from distant lands are colonizing the south-east of the Netherlands. This has been demonstrated by biology students from Leiden University faculty. Although the amphibians thrive in the little country, ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 22, 2025
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22
A build-up of ultra-fine sediment in riverbeds is creating oxygen-starved conditions that threaten fish spawning grounds and freshwater invertebrates, new research on the River Taw in Devon has revealed. The study is published ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 21, 2025
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