Stream substrate (

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...

) is the material that rests at the bottom of a

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

. There are several classification guides. One is: *

Mud A MUD (; originally multi-user dungeon, with later variants multi-user dimension and multi-user domain) is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer Time-keeping systems in games#Real-time, real-time virtual world, usually Text-based game, text-bas ...

– silt and clay. *

Sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...

– Particles between 0.06 and 2 mm in diameter. * Granule – Between 2 and 4 mm in diameter. *

Pebble A pebble is a clast of rock with a particle size of based on the Udden-Wentworth scale of sedimentology. Pebbles are generally considered larger than granules ( in diameter) and smaller than cobbles ( in diameter). A rock made predominant ...

– Between 4 – 64 mm in diameter. *

Cobble Cobble may refer to: * Cobble (geology), a designation of particle size for sediment or clastic rock * Cobblestone, partially rounded rocks used for road paving * Hammerstone, a prehistoric stone tool * Tyringham Cobble, a nature reserve in Tyr ...

– between 6.4 and 25.6 cm in diameter *

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In c ...

– more than 25.6 cm in diameter. Stream substrate can affect the life found within the stream habitat. Muddy streams generally have more sediment in the water, reducing clarity. Clarity is one guide to stream health. Marine substrate can be classified geologically as well. See Green et al., 1999 for a reference. Mollusks and clams that live in areas with substrate, and need them to survive, use their silky byssal threads to cling to it. See Cteniodes Ales for reference.

See also