F1.6 Episodic arid rivers

F1. Rivers and streams biome

F1
Published

June 1, 2024

Modified

July 22, 2024

Profile summary

Full profile at https://global-ecosystems.org/explore/groups/F1.6

Brief description

These desert rivers occur mostly in flat areas of arid and semi-arid mid-latitudes. Channels are typically broad, flat, and often branching, with soft sandy sediments. They are dry most of the time, but punctuated by high-volume, short duration flows that transport nutrients and stimulate high productivity by algae and zooplankton. Plants and animals can either tolerate or avoid long, dry periods and then exploit short pulses of abundant resources, producing hotspots of biodiversity and ecological activity in arid landscapes.

Key features

Rivers with high temporal flow variability which determines periods of high and low productivity, supporting high levels of biodiversity and complex trophic networks during floods and simple trophic networks during dry periods.

Overview of distribution

Arid and semi-arid landscapes in mid-latitudes mostly in lowlands.

Map description

Freshwater ecoregions (Abell et al. 2008) were identified as containing occurrences of these functional groups if: i) their descriptions mentioned features consistent with those identified in the profile of the Ecosystem Functional Group; and ii) if their location was consistent with the ecological drivers described in the profile. Within the selected ecoregions, remote sensing estimates of ephemeral surface water (classes 4, 5 and 8 from Pekel et al. 2016) were used to identify major occurrences. The remaining areas of selected ecoregions were mapped as minor occurrences..

Map code and version: F1.6.web.mix v1.0, available at DOI

Version history

Profile versions

  • v2.1 (2022-04-06): JL Nel; RT Kingsford; R Mac Nally; PS Giller; B Robson; AH Arthington; DA Keith.1
  • v2.01 (2021-12-31): NA.
  • v2.0 (2020-05-24): JL Nel; RT Kingsford; R Mac Nally; PS Giller; B Robson; AH Arthington; DA Keith.
  • v1.0 (2020-01-20): JL Nel; RT Kingsford; RC Mac Nally; DA Keith.

Available maps

Read more details about the current map versions here.

  • Indicative Map (code: F1.6.IM.mix, version v2.0)
  • Web navigation (code: F1.6.web.mix, version v1.0) DOI

Read more details about older or alternative versions of maps for this functional group.

  • Indicative Map: discarded (code: F1.6.IM.alt, version v2.0)
  • Web navigation: in preparation (code: F1.6.WM.nwx, version v1.0)
  • Web navigation: requires review (code: F1.6.web.orig, version v1.0)
  • Indicative Map: superceeded (code: F1.6.IM.mix, version v1.0)
  • Indicative Map: discarded (code: F1.6.IM.orig, version v1.0)

References

Main references

References used in the different versions of the profiles.

  • Kingsford RT (2006) Ecology of desert rivers Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 13 978-0-521-81825-4
  • Sheldon et al. (2010) Ecological roles and threats to aquatic refuges in arid landscapes: dryland river waterholes Marine & Freshwater Research 61, 885-895

Map references

References used in the different versions of the maps (current and discarded).

  • Abell R, Thieme ML, Revenga C, Bryer M, Kottelat M, Bogutskaya N, Coad B, Mandrak N, Contreras Balderas S, Bussing W, Stiassny MLJ, Skelton P, Allen GR, Unmack P, Naseka A, Ng R, Sindorf N, Robertson J, Armijo E, Higgins JV, Heibel TJ, Wikramanayake E, Olson D, López HL, Reis RE, Lundberg JG, Sabaj Pérez MH, Petry P (2008) Freshwater ecoregions of the world: A new map of biogeographic units for freshwater biodiversity conservation, BioScience 58: 403–414. DOI:10.1641/B580507
  • Messager, M. L., Lehner, B., Cockburn, C., Lamouroux, N., Pella, H., Snelder, T., Tockner, K., Trautmann, T., Watt, C. & Datry, T. (2021) Global prevalence of non-perennial rivers and streams Nature DOI:10.1038/s41586-021-03565-5
  • Ouellet Dallaire, C., Lehner, B., Sayre, R., Thieme, M. (2018): A multidisciplinary framework to derive global river reach classifications at high spatial resolution. Environmental Research Letters 14: 024003. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aad8e9
  • Pekel JF, Cottam A, Gorelick N, Belward AS (2016) High-resolution mapping of global surface water and its long-term changes Nature 540, 418-422 DOI:10.1038/nature20584
  • Yamazaki D., D. Ikeshima, J. Sosa, P.D. Bates, G.H. Allen, T.M. Pavelsky (2019) MERIT Hydro: A high-resolution global hydrography map based on latest topography datasets Water Resources Research vol.55, pp.5053-5073 DOI:10.1029/2019WR024873

Footnotes

  1. This is the current version available at official site.↩︎