Black Warrior River NEON - United States of America

The Black Warrior River begins at the confluence of the Locust, Mulberry, and Sipsey Forks in northern Alabama and ends at its confluence with the Tombigbee River near Demopolis, AL. The river drains from a 16,160 km2 (nearly 4 million acre) watershed, or 12.2% of Alabama’s land area. The river is managed as an inland waterway with a system of locks and dams that significantly reduces the flow in the river, creating a series of lentic environments in the river, reducing lateral connectivity between the river channel and its floodplain and off-channel areas, and resulting in high discharge pulses at BLWA. The streams in the lower section of the watershed are generally glide/pool, low gradient, and habitat poor. Streams in the northern section of the lower Black Warrior watershed flow year round due to sand and gravel aquifers in the area; whereas, streams in the southern section will usually go dry or flow will become quite low. The watershed is subject to major precipitation pulses from tropical storms and hurricanes. These major events affect nutrient and organic matter flux, sediment transport, and biota along the gradient as they propagate downstream.