Disconnected rivers : linking rivers to landscapes

This important and accessible book surveys the history and present condition of river systems across the United States, showing how human activities have impoverished our rivers and impaired the connections between river worlds and other ecosystems. Ellen Wohl begins by introducing the basic physical, chemical, and biological processes operating in rivers. She then addresses changes in rivers resulting from settlement and expansion, describes the growth of federal involvement in managing rivers, and examines the recent efforts to rehabilitate and conserve river ecosystems. In each chapter she focuses on a specific regional case study and describes what happens to a particular river organism—a bird, North America’s largest salamander, the paddlefish, and the American alligator—when people interfere with natural processes.

This book focuses on how rivers function, how those functions have changed through time, and the role of humans in those changes. A river continually responds to changes in its environment and is never static. The type of river response depends on the magnitude and persistence of changes in water and sediment entering the river. The movements of water and sediment within a sand-bed channel adjust readily over a period of minutes to hours. The book discusses rivers of the Northeast and East-Central region of the United States, which drain east to the Atlantic Ocean. The single largest drainage basin in this region is the St. Lawrence, which delivers an average of 65,000 billion gallons of water to the ocean each year. The book examines the river systems in America, explains how the earliest human inhabitants reached America and modified the physical and biological environments of the rivers, and reveals that sedentary agricultural communities first appeared in the archeological record of North America more than 2,000 years ago. As with agricultural peoples elsewhere in the world, these first farmers affected rivers more than their hunter-gatherer predecessors. The book discusses the impact of industrialization on the health of rivers in United States, also focusing on the restoration and rehabilitation of rivers.

Ellen Wohl Offers A Survey Of The History & Present Condition Of River Systems Across The Us. After Describing The Biological, Chemical & Physical Aspects Of The Functioning Of Rivers, She Discusses The Changes As The Result Of Development & Federal Management, & Examines Rehabilitation Projects. Why Should We Care About Rivers? -- American Rivers -- Conquering A New World : Pioneer Impacts -- Poisoning America : Commercial Impacts -- Institutional Conquest : Bureaucratic Impacts -- Trying To Do The Right Thing : Rehabilitation Impacts -- Thinking In Terms Of Rivers. Ellen E. Wohl. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [273]-297) And Index.