Abstract

Although it rises in the major metropolitan area of Birmingham, the Cahaba River of Alabama retains most of its pristine qualities as an undisturbed watershed of the region. Thus, it has attracted the attention both of biogeographers interested in the mechanics of the initial population of watercourses and of ecologists interested in human impacts on the environment. Particularly significant is that for the first time crawfishes are included in the major groups surveyed in studies concerned with such problems. Crawfishes parallel the other major groups in dividing into upper, lower, and middle reaches groups and demonstrating that population was accomplished by invasions from adjacent major drainages. Only in the immediate vicinity of Birming­ham have introduced species impacted negatively on native species.

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