Cahaba River Facts

 

Major Physical Features

Basin area (km2)

   4,730

Mean discharge (m3/s) (1938-2000)

        80

Mean precipitation (cm/yr)

      138

Physiographic provinces            Ridge and Valley, Appalachian Plateau, Coastal Plain

 

Major Biological Features

Terrestrial biome

Eastern Deciduous Forest

# of fish species

      135

 

# of endangered species

          3

 

 

Major fishes:  paddlefish, Alabama sturgeon, spotted and longnose gars, mooneye, American eel, Alabama shad, skipjack herring, gizzard and threadfin shads, Alabama shiner, blacktail shiner, tricolor shiner, pretty shiner, speckled chub, silver chub, emerald shiner, cahaba shiner, silverside shiner, fluvial shiner, skygazer shiner, mimic shiner, bluntnose and bullhead minnows, riffle minnow, quillback, highfin carpsucker, southeastern blue sucker, smallmouth buffalo, Alabama hog sucker, spotted sucker, river, golden and blacktail redorses, blue, channel and flathead catfishes, frecklebelly madtom, redfin and chain pickerels, white bass, shadow bass, warmouth, green, bluegill, longear, redear,  and redspotted sunfishes, spotted and largemouth basses, white and black crappie, naked sanddarter, southern sand darter, crystal darter, rock darter, goldline darter, coal darter, blackbanded darter, saddleback darter, Mobile logperch, and freshwater drum

 

Major invertebrates: 

Mussels – southern fatmucket, Alabama orb, elephant ear, bleufer, three-horned  wartyback, southern rainbow, asiatic clam

Gastropods – Elimia cahabensis, E. clara, E. pupoidea, E. showalteri, Leptoxis sp., Somatogyrus, Physella, Ferissia, Micromenetus, Fossaria

Insects – Cheumatopsyche, Hydroptila, and Cyrnellus, Acroneuria, Stenacron, Stenonema, Tricorythodes, Eurylophella, Ancyronyx, and Chironomidae (Ablabesmyia, Polypedilum, Tribelos)

 

Non-native species:  Fourteen species of freshwater fishes have been introduced, three species (goldfish and grass and common carps) are exotic species; Asiatic clam

 

Major riparian plants:  bald cypress, eastern cottonwood, swamp cottonwood, mockernut hickory, river birch American hornbeam, American beech, southern red oak, water oak, live oak, American elm, yellow-poplar, sweetgum, American sycamore, American holly, red maple, blackgum, water tupelo, swamp tupelo, carolina ash

 

Special features:  The Cahaba River is the longest free-flowing river in the southeastern Gulf Coast Region.  It contains the largest number of fish species for its size in North America.

 

From:  Ward, G.M., P. Harris, A.K. Ward.  2003.  Eastern Gulf Region (Mobile, Pearl, Apalachicola, Suwanee, Cahaba Rivers).  In: Rivers of North America (A.C. Benke and C. E. Cushing, eds).  Academic Press  In Press.