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WATERSHEDS AS THE BASIC ECOSYSTEM: THIS CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK PROVIDES A BASIS FOR A NATURAL CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM 1
Author(s) -
Lotspeich Frederick B.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
jawra journal of the american water resources association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.957
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1752-1688
pISSN - 1093-474X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-1688.1980.tb02434.x
Subject(s) - watershed , ecosystem , landform , vegetation (pathology) , natural (archaeology) , ecological succession , environmental science , streams , hydrology (agriculture) , earth science , environmental resource management , ecology , geology , geomorphology , computer science , geotechnical engineering , medicine , paleontology , computer network , pathology , machine learning , biology
A scheme is outlined to classify watersheds as ecosystems, based on their natural attributes. Two physical factors of the environment, climate and geology, are selected as state factors. Climate is the master factor that supplies energy and water to all ecosystems; geologic structure supplies the materal from which the forces of climate carve landforms to establish ecosystems. At the next lower level, soil and vegetation interact in a succession of transactions to produce a mosaic of tesseras within each watershed. It is these interacting tesseras that moderate climate and store energy within the ecosystem that influences the embedded stream. At the bottom of the scale is the stream with its passive role and inability to interact with the higher factors of the ecosystem. Thus, we have a controlling force consisting of two elements (climate and geology), a reacting force (soil and vegetation) that responds by circular conditioning to controlling forces, and at the lowest level, the stream which responds to all factors of the living system within its watershed.