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Aquatic Habitats

For this Assessment, freshwater habitats important to rare aquatic animals were classified as groundwater habitats or surface-water habitats. Ground water includes those in caves, and also springs and seeps. Surface-water habitats include standing water (lakes, ponds, oxbows, beaver ponds, swamps, bogs, and some wetland areas) and flowing water (rivers and streams). These two divisions are, obviously, generalizations of the immense diversity of aquatic habitats that exist in the South, and grade from one to another (see, for example, discussions by Vannote and others 1980, Mishall and others 1983). Aquatic systems are not only connected but are also completely intergraded between what is typically referred to as an aquifer to a lake or a river. By defining these broad categories and attempting to determine a primary habitat and in some cases a secondary habitat for each species considered in this Assessment, we were able to more thoroughly discuss the biological significance of these habitats and the factors threatening the species found there.

Because they are generally threatened by the same factors, permanently flooded ponds were not distinguished from ephemeral ponds in this discussion. Rivers were defined as flowing waters exclusive of headwater tributaries. Headwater tributaries include both perennial and intermittent streams.