The scientific literature unequivocally demonstrates that streams, individually or cumulatively, exert a
strong influence on the integrity of downstream waters. All tributary streams, including perennial,
intermittent, and ephemeral streams, are physically, chemically, and biologically connected to downstream
rivers via channels and associated alluvial deposits where water and other materials are concentrated,
mixed, transformed, and transported. Streams are the dominant source of water in most rivers, and the
majority of tributaries are perennial, intermittent, or ephemeral headwater streams. Headwater streams also
convey water into local storage compartments such as ponds, shallow aquifers, or stream banks, and into
regional and alluvial aquifers; these local storage compartments are important sources of water for
maintaining baseflow in rivers. In addition to water, streams transport sediment, wood, organic matter,
nutrients, chemical contaminants, and many of the organisms found in rivers. The literature provides robust
evidence that streams are biologically connected to downstream waters by the dispersal and migration of
aquatic and semiaquatic organisms, including fish, amphibians, plants, microorganisms, and invertebrates,
that use both upstream and downstream habitats during one or more stages of their life cycles, or provide
food resources to downstream communities. In addition to material transport and biological connectivity,
ephemeral, intermittent, and perennial flows influence fundamental biogeochemical processes by connecting
channels and shallow ground water with other landscape elements. Physical, chemical, and biological
connections between streams and downstream waters interact via integrative processes such as nutrient
spiraling, in which stream communities assimilate and chemically transform large quantities of nitrogen and
other nutrients that otherwise would be transported directly downstream, increasing nutrient loads and
associated impairments due to excess nutrients in downstream waters.