Identifying aquatic ecosystems requires a classification of stream and lake features into recognizable entities or categories. Although a number of nationally recognized terrestrial community classifications exist, the most accepted being the National Vegetation Classification System (Grossman et al. 1998), currently there is no national or international standard for classifying aquatic communities or ecosystems. Despite the lack of a national aquatic community classification, aquatic ecosystem classifications and frameworks have been developed at a variety of spatial scales. Their goal is often to reflect the distribution of aqutic biological communities. These assemblages recur across the landscape under similar habitat conditions and ecological processes (Higgins et al. 2005). The methods used to develop aquatic ecosystem classifications vary widely, as do the biotic and abiotic variables considered in the classifications. The classifications generally fall into two broad categories: 1) taxonomic or bio-ecosystem classifications and 2) environmental or geo-physical ecosystem classifications (Rowe and Barnes 1994); however some classifications combine aspects of both.
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Stream Classification
