· Coastal Wonders
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
· Looking Ahead

Global 200 Snapshot

The Southeastern Rivers and Streams ecoregion is one of the most species-rich temperate freshwater areas in the world.  

Coastal Wonders

Would you prefer seeing churning rapids, a broad and lazy river, or perhaps a hidden mountain pool? If you can't decide, just take a trip through the Southeastern Rivers and Streams, a network of all types of waterways. From its clear, cool streams in the Appalachian Mountains to its brackish marshes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, this freshwater ecoregion includes a wide variety of habitats and some of the most species-rich freshwater systems in the world. It is home to hundreds of species of fish, snails, mussels and other invertebrates.

Special Features

The region’s diversity of habitats, age, favorable climate, and geologic stability, along with its escape from glaciation during the last Ice Age, have promoted the evolution of an extremely diverse community of aquatic animals. This ecoregion is a hot spot for mussels, crayfish, and freshwater fish.

	The lake sturgeon has been reintroduced in the French Broad reach of the Tennessee River, near Knoxville. This fish species, which can grow to be over 8 feet (2.4 meters) and 300 pounds (136 kg), can live up to 100 years. It was one abundant in the Tennessee River, but was extirpated (no longer found there) due to waste pollution.

Wild Side

This center of aquatic diversity is home to more than 250 species of crayfish, more than 300 species of mussels, and more than half the freshwater fish species in the United States. Of the roughly 400 species of crayfish in the United States, about 70 percent are found only in Southeastern Rivers and Streams. A relatively intact stream in this region supports more mussel species than all of Australia and Europe combined. Minnows, suckers, catfish, bass, sunfish, and perch make up the bulk of the incredible fish diversity. In just one river, the Cahaba in Alabama, there are more fish species per kilometer than any other river in North America, including 18 species that exist nowhere else.

Cause for Concern

The land around Southeastern Rivers and Streams is heavily developed with cities, roads, farms, and industries. Dams have been built to produce electricity, and water has been diverted from rivers and streams for irrigation. Acid rain and soil erosion often pollute the water. Chemical fertilizers and other nutrients run off the land and into the rivers and streams, causing too much vegetation to grow and then decompose. This decomposition then uses up the oxygen that fish and other aquatic species need to breathe. Introduced species, like Asiatic clams, zebra mussels, and others, compete with natives for habitat and food and in some cases cause the decline of native populations.

Looking Ahead

World Wildlife Fund and many partner organizations are working to protect the Southeastern Rivers and Streams ecoregion. An important strategy is to address the very long-term threat to the ecoregion: diversion of water from natural habitats to feed the demands of the area's explosive growth and development. They are also working to control mine runoff, manage forests in a sustainable way that prevents runoff, reintroduce lake sturgeon and other native species, and clean up the Tennessee River.