This section covers standing waters, streams and rivers. These habitats, and the species associated with them, are particularly vulnerable to changes relating to pollution incidents and climate change. Changes in temperature and the periodicity of inundation, influenced by the changing seasonality and levels of precipitation, can have a dramatic impact on the biodiversity of the habitats. These are outlined in the respective sections below.
Standing waters and watercourses
Standing waters
Standing water exists in several forms, e.g., as small ephemeral ponds that dry up in the summer months or in times of drought, as small pools and ponds that often need management to persist, as larger permanent lakes or as coastal lagoons. These different types of standing water are outlined briefly in the sections below.…
Watercourses
There are very few, if any, truly natural water courses in Wales: most rivers, for example, have undergone one or more of channel straightening, bank modifications, water extractions, the insertion of weirs and dams or the construction of marinas and barrages where they enter the sea. They have also, along with most smaller streams, suffered…