Field guide to imperiled aquatic mollusks and fishes Alabama has an exceptionally diverse array of aquatic animal species. A unique combination of climatic and hydrologic conditions—mild average temperature, abundant rainfall, and 77,000 miles of perennial and intermittent streams that flow over a complex geologic terrain—has provided ideal and diverse environments for aquatic communities. There are more species of freshwater mussels and snails in Alabama than in any other state, and Alabama boasts one of the richest fish faunas in North America. Unfortunately, many species are now extinct, extirpated, or gravely imperiled due to dam construction, unnatural water flows, stream channelization, sedimentation, stream-bed instability, and water pollution. This volume focuses on those imperiled species of mollusks and fishes, presenting their common and scientific names, a detailed morphological description, full-color identification photographs and distribution maps, habitats, life history and ecological information, and the basis for their high level of conservation concern. It is, in one volume, a “report card” on the health of endangered populations of aquatic species and a field guide to their identification.
