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.
In mountain regions like the Rockies, headwater streams make up more than 70% of the river network and support the downstream waterways and communities. These headwaters are also home to many forms of aquatic life. While ...
Earth Sciences
Nov 13, 2025
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Agriculture, wastewater, dams, the runoff of fine sediments from croplands and, last but not least, climate change with its rising temperatures are changing the quality and structure of freshwater ecosystems, especially rivers. ...
Ecology
Nov 12, 2025
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During a severe drought and heat wave in 2023, Amazonian lakes reached their highest recorded temperatures. Water temperatures in some areas climbed to an astonishing 41 degrees Celsius (105.8 degrees Fahrenheit) and resulted ...
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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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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