Texas Rivers

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Texas Rivers
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Why do we need to know about Rivers?

• Source of drinking water
• Source of irrigation water (You eat rivers as
  well as drink them)
• Waste removal (takes it downstream)
• A given pollutant can settle out within 30 feet
  of flowing over rock and sand.
• Industry you like electricity?
• Flood Control you like your house dry?
• Recreation
• Wildlife Habitat

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Texas River Basins
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With topographic relief added
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Rivers in Texas Common Denominators

• All flow in Southeasterly direction
• All empty into Gulf of Mexico
• Otherwise EXTREMELY variable in their
  characteristics!

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All the Rivers of Texas

• Primary Watersheds
• Sabine
• Neches
• Trinity
• San Jacinto
• Brazos
• San Bernard
• Colorado
• Navidad
• Atascosa
• San Antonio
• Guadalupe
• Aransas
• Nueces

• The Rio Grande and its Tributaries
• Rio Grande
• Pecos
• Devils
• Tributaries of the Mississippi
• Canadian
• Red
• Cypress
• Sulphur

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Watershed
What is a Watershed? A watershed is the area of
land where all of the water that is under it or
drains off of it goes into the same place. John
Wesley Powell, scientist geographer, put it best
when he said that a watershed is "that area of
land, a bounded hydrologic system, within which
all living things are inextricably linked by
their common water course and where, as humans
settled, simple logic demanded that they become
part of a community." Watersheds come in all
shapes and sizes. They cross county, state, and
national boundaries. In the continental US, there
are 2,110 watersheds including Hawaii Alaska,
and Puerto Rico, there are 2,267 watersheds.
                                                  
                                                  
                    
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River Zones

• Zone 1 Headwaters
• Zone 2 Transition
• Zone 3Flood Plains

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Zone 1 Headwaters

• Water rises out of springs
• Water typically cooler
• Waterfalls, rapids, make for high DO
• Lifeforms trout, members of Order Ephemeroptera.

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Headwaters videos
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vldg6Sru0ddg In
Transit Mississippi River by canoe http//www.yout
ube.com/watch?vJJ6WB3lKMHofeaturelist_relatedp
laynext1listSPE2907D7AA81F6571
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Zone 2 Transition Zone

• Formed where headwaters merge
• Wider, deeper, gentler flow
• Lower DO
• Shape land by incising valleys
• Lifeforms Crappie, Crayfish

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Transition Zone Videos

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vy8UfH1Eo5bE
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vzQQngZ-M6II

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Zone 3 Flood Plains

• Streams join to form deep, wide rivers that
  MEANDER across broad, flat valleys.
• Higher temperatures
• Lower DO
• Shape land by cutting meanders, laying out
  deltas, depositing levees and floodplains.
• Lifeforms Catfish, tolerant Macs

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Floodplain Videos

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vRQ6oyf9C8Lcfeature
  results_mainplaynext1listPL6D35E13D8E3608B9

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Zone 4 Delta

• Stream meets the sea or lake and dumps its load,
  forming a broad plain called a DELTA.
• Nutrient RICH, often influenced by tides,
  variable salinity
• These factors allow for an extremely rich
  smorgasbord of fish and invertebrates
• Freshwater and Inshore Saltwater species
  (Alligator Gar, Red Drum) cohabitate.

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Delta Videos

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vSJLg_Fabuok
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vHi6x0951H7A
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vRFDYfvahEwE

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How to Kill a River

• Pollution (Point Source)
• Sewage
• Industrial Wastes
• (Non-point Source)
• Agricultural Fertilizers
• Runoff from Roads (Oil scum)
• Plastics
• (Biological)
• Alien species
• Over damming
• Kills the flow, upsets local fisheries.
• Starves ocean of sand, leading to erosion of
  coastal features.
• Channelization
• River Sediment Mining

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More Must-see Videos

• Non-point Source Pollution
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vcACFw8lzkPI
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?veozVMJCYHCMfeature
  related
• Dynamic Equilibrium
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v0Va7E7KOz94feature
  related

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More Good Stuff

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?featureplayer_embedd
  edv0fIXhs6DzIE!