Distributaries are often found where a stream approaches a lake or an ocean. The phenomenon is known as river bifurcation. Distributaries are common features of river deltas. Distributary Ī distributary, or a distributary channel, is a stream that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. Also called a swale.Ī tributary is a contributory stream, or a stream which does not reach a static body of water such as a lake or ocean but joins another river (a parent river). The linear channel between the parallel ridges or bars on a shoreline beach or river floodplain, or between a bar and the shore. In these cases, the "stream" is the tidal stream, the course of the seawater through the creek channel at low and high tide.Ī river is a large natural stream, which may be a waterway. Portsbridge Creek separating Portsea Island from the mainland). In the UK, India, and parts of Maryland, New England, a tidal inlet, typically in a salt marsh or mangrove swamp, or between enclosed and drained former salt marshes or swamps (e.g.Sometimes navigable by motor craft and may be intermittent. In Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States, a (narrow) stream that is smaller than a river a minor tributary of a river a brook.A brook is characterised by its shallowness.Ī creek ( / k r iː k/) or crick ( / k r ɪ k/): Ī low level stream in Macon County, Illinois Brook Ī stream smaller than a creek, especially one that is fed by a spring or seep. The study of streams and waterways in general is known as surface hydrology and is a core element of environmental geography. Given the status of the ongoing Holocene extinction, streams play an important corridor role in connecting fragmented habitats and thus in conserving biodiversity. The biological habitat in the immediate vicinity of a stream is called a riparian zone. Streams are important as conduits in the water cycle, instruments in groundwater recharge, and corridors for fish and wildlife migration. The stream encompasses surface, subsurface and groundwater fluxes that respond to geological, geomorphological, hydrological and biotic controls. Groundwater, on the other hand, has a relatively constant input and is controlled more by long-term patterns of precipitation. The surface and subterranean water are highly variable between periods of rainfall. The flow of a stream is controlled by three inputs – surface runoff (from precipitation or meltwater), daylighted subterranean water, and surfaced groundwater ( spring water). Long large streams are usually called rivers, while smaller, less voluminous and more intermittent streams are known as streamlets, brooks or creeks. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Stream near Montriond in southeastern FranceĪ stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel.
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