. The changing Illinois environment : critical trends : technical report of the Critical Trends Assessment Project. Man; Pollution; Environmental protection; Ecology; Environmental impact analysis. FLOWING WATERS INTRODUCTION GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS Illinois contains over 26,000 miles of flowing waters, which constitutes about 19% by area of the total surface water in the state. Illinois is bordered on the west and south by two of the largest and most cel- ebrated rivers in the country, the Mississippi River and the Ohio River, respectively. Within its boundaries, the state contains a
. The changing Illinois environment : critical trends : technical report of the Critical Trends Assessment Project. Man; Pollution; Environmental protection; Ecology; Environmental impact analysis. FLOWING WATERS INTRODUCTION GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS Illinois contains over 26,000 miles of flowing waters, which constitutes about 19% by area of the total surface water in the state. Illinois is bordered on the west and south by two of the largest and most cel- ebrated rivers in the country, the Mississippi River and the Ohio River, respectively. Within its boundaries, the state contains a striking diversity of flowing-water environments, including small, spring-fed, coldwater creeks; stony-bottomed coolwater and warmwater streams; and largely soft-bottomed, warmwater streams. Such diversity of habitats has helped to foster a diverse flowing-water fauna and flora within the state. This diversity of stream environments is not broadly distributed throughout the state; rather, it is concen- trated in a small subset of the state's flowing-water systems. The vast majority of the streams in Illinois have been highly manipulated, either directly, by alterations within the stream, or indirectly, by modifi- cations of the surrounding landscape, or both. Direct manipulations of stream habitats are often highly visible, such as construction of dams and the straight- ening or channelization of stream reaches. In fact, in many areas of the state, a significant proportion of smaller streams have been constructed entirely by humans to provide more effective land drainage and more suitable conditions for agriculture. Illinois streams have also been indirectly affected by land-use practices within watersheds, which can affect instream habitat (, by sediment loading from the adjacent landscape) as well as the riparian zone and floodplain, which are integrally connected, both functionally and structurally, to the streams. Because of such manipula- tions, streams in areas of in
Size: 1331px × 1877px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, booksubjecte, booksubjectecology, booksubjectman
