Low Levels of Development Cause Widespread Decline in Stream Biodiversity

Degraded headwater stream in rural Wyoming

Scientific studies for decades have demonstrated that there are consistent and widespread declines in stream biodiversity at even low levels of development.

A Baylor University study for example found that aquatic life actually shows significant loss of biodiversity with less than two percent of developed land in a watershed.

The findings and others like them are alarming and imply that water quality in streams is degraded rapidly with relatively low levels of development, which clearly has significant implications to the organisms that live in these streams,” said study co-author Dr. Ryan King, associate professor of biology at Baylor. “Perhaps of even greater concern is that the decline of stream-dwelling animals implies that there is chemical pollution that could also be detrimental to human health via groundwater and downstream drinking water supplies. It is unlikely that it’s just the rapid runoff of water from the impervious cover that is causing the loss of biodiversity, but more likely that chemical pollution is also responsible.”