Abstract

Characteristics of water and sediment runoff graduate along a river. Water and sediment yield increase due to lateral inflow. It occurs in according with the transformation of the geomorphologic features of channel-flow interaction existing in the direction from mountains to lowlands. Due to the geographical factors changes the continuum of mountain, semi-mountain and plain rivers exists. In different conditions different types of channel patterns occur – straight, meandering and braided channels. Each of them is characterized by special hydraulic laws, water and sediment load distribution, water temperature changes, bed deposits composition. It leads to the hydrocoles community transformation and occurrence of special habitats. We studied the hydrocoles communities’ structure of the Kamchatka’s rivers. Habitat characteristics of different rivers with different channel patterns were found out. Also the quantitative characteristics of hydrocoles communities were estimated.

Keywords: channel patterns, stream communities, hydrocoles, Kamchatka peninsula