Rivers of North America

Michael Delong is a Professor of Biology and Director of the Large River Studies Center at Winona State University, Winona, Minnesota USA. Delong has studied rivers for over 30 years, with a focus on community and ecosystem ecology and has engaged in research in a number of rivers in the U.S. as well as rivers in Australia. A primary focus of his research has been on food web ecology, with both applied and basic implications. As director of the LRSC, Delong engaged over 160 undergraduate students in research of aquatic systems. Delong has published 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and contributed to three books on river science. Tim Jardine is an Associate Professor in the Toxicology Centre and the School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Rivers Institute and an Adjunct Research Fellow of the Australian Rivers Institute. His research focuses on energy and contaminant cycling in aquatic ecosystems, the development of ecological tracers to study food webs, and biomonitoring of river health. His past research has taken him to northern Australia, Singapore and the central Amazon, and he currently leads community engaged, interdisciplinary research in a complex social-ecological system, the Saskatchewan River Delta in central Canada. Arthur C. Benke has been Professor of Biology at the University of Alabama from 1984 to 2012 and has been Professor Emeritus since then. Before that he was a faculty member of the Georgia Institute of Technology for 13 years. He has published widely in scientific journals and books, primarily on the ecology of invertebrates in rivers, streams and wetlands, and was the senior editor for Rivers of North America (2005) and Field Guide to Rivers of North America (2010). He has served on the editorial boards of Ecology, Freshwater Biology, the Journal of the North American Benthological Society (J-NABS), and is past president of NABS. He received his B.S. in Biological Sciences from Cornell University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Zoology/Ecology from the University of Georgia. He received the Award of Excellence from the Society for Freshwater Science (SFS) in 2012 and became an inaugural Fellow of SFS in 2017. Colbert E. Cushing was a Senior Research Scientist with the Battelle-Pacific Northwest Laboratory in Richland, Washington, until semi-retiring in 1996. He was an Adjunct Professor at Washington State University-Tri Cities, and held an Affiliate Faculty appointment at Colorado State University. He was one of the scientists instrumental in the formulation and testing of the River Continuum Concept. He has published widely in scientific journals and books, was the lead editor of River and Stream Ecosystems, and co-authored Streams: Their Ecology and Life. He served on the editorial boards for the journals Ecology and Journal of the North American Benthological Society (NABS) and was past president of NABS. He was co-editor for the first edition of Rivers of North America and Field Guide to Rivers of North America (2010) and passed away before the completion of the second edition.

“…a handsome – and hefty – book that provides detailed descriptions of 156 rivers that drain 22 distinct geographic regions in North America,… with chapters spanning the northernmost rivers of the Arctic, warm and humid tropical rivers of southern Mexico, and nearly everything in-between…. [P]rovides a wealth of new material that very much complements the first [edition],… worthy of occupying a prominent place in your library…. [Includes] helpful maps that illustrate geographic boundaries of the large river basins and physiographic provinces, as well as example graphics that introduce the reader to regional variation in precipitation, runoff, and evapotranspiration…. Each primary chapter takes us on a journey of multiple rivers within a geographic region and is co-written by experts – predominantly scientists and a few engineers – that study, manage, or work to protect these rivers…. There are many aspects of this book that will be valuable to dedicated readers,… a fantastic reference text.” --SILnews - Prof. Wyatt F. Cross, Department of Ecology Montana State University Bozeman, MT, USA"...provides a large number of descriptive statistics of physical, chemical, and biological features of each river in a very consistent manner within and among chapters that ease comparison and assessment for the reader.... A distinctive upgrade of this new edition is the quality and detail of the watershed maps. These illustrations enhance the reader’s understanding of the river’s form and character with their clarity and accuracy.... Overall, Rivers of North America is a timely and essential contribution to freshwater science. I believe this book is a fine-tuned instrument to inspire freshwater scientists to find the relevant questions and the right place to test their hypotheses. The book is a must-read for anyone invested in the future of North American rivers; a future that is relatively optimistic as suggested in the book’s concluding remarks." --Marc Peipoch, Ecosystems Ecology Group, Stroud Water Research Center, Avondale, PA, USA

• 1. Introduction and Approach2. Atlantic Coast Rivers of the Northeastern United States3. Atlantic Coast Rivers of the Southeastern United States4. Gulf Coast Rivers of the Southeastern United States5. Gulf Coast Rivers of the Southwestern United States6. Lower Mississippi River and its Tributaries7. Southern Plains Rivers8. Upper Mississippi River Basin9. Ohio River Basin10. Missouri River Basin11. Colorado River Basin12. Pacific Rivers of the Coterminous United States13. Columbia River Basin14. Great Basin Rivers15. Fraser River Basin16. Pacific Coast Rivers of Canada and Alaska17. Yukon River Basin18. Mackenzie River Basin19. Nelson and Churchill River Basins20. Rivers of Arctic North America21. Atlantic Coast Rivers of Canada22. St. Lawrence River Basin23. Rivers of Mexico24. Overview