Puget Sound Stream Benthos is a data management project which monitors benthic invertebrates in streams and rivers in the Puget Sound region. The system is maintained and operated by King County, and was the result of a joint effort between King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties.
Topics Overview
King County
King County is located on Puget Sound in Washington State. It is bordered on the north by Snohomish County, the northeast by Chelan County, the southeast by Kittitas County, the south by Pierce County and across the Puget Sound on the west by Kitsap County. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, King County has a total land area of 2,115.57 square miles and a population of 1,931,249. Seattle is its largest city with a population of 608,660. Also of interest:
- The intersecting watershed sub-basins(9): Puyallup, Naches, Upper Yakima, Wenatchee, Puget Sound, Lake Washington, Duwamish, Skykomish and Snoqualmie.
- Major lakes: Lake Washington, Lake Sammamish and Chester Morse Lake.
- Major rivers: Green River, White River, Snoqualmie River, Cedar River, Taylor River, Tolt River, Sammamish River and Skykomish River.
- Mount Daniel (7,960 feet) is part of the Cascade Range and the highest point in King County.
U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts for King County, WA
King County Biodiversity Report
Office of Financial Management (OFM) county data for King County, WA
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Wetlands are recognized as critical ecosystems for biodiversity because of their disproportional use by wildlife and exceptional habitats for plants. It is their unique combination of shallow aquatic habitats and adjacent terrestrial conditions extending over a wide range of geomorphic and elevational settings that accounts for their ecological complexity and resultant richness. Because of their landscape setting, each wetland tends to exhibit unique habitat types and characteristic arrays of species adapted to idiosyncratic conditions, products of each wetland’s ecological and evolutionary history.
Except for a very small area in the SE corner of the County, the subalpine and alpine habitats are located in the North Cascades Ecoregion that occupies the NE quarter of King County. This ecoregion is composed of steeply dissected valleys that rise precipitously to the subalpine (montane) forests, meadows, and parklands and, in a short distance more, to the alpine ridges and peaks of the Cascade Crest. The habitats that typify this high-elevation zone are among the most undisturbed habitats remaining in King County.
The diversity of streams in the county is a reflection of the diversity of its geography. From the small rivulets that begin high in the Cascade Mountains, to the brooks that flow gently across the lowlands, to the five major rivers of the county, there are over 4,800 kilometers (3,000 miles) of perennial streamcourses in King County.
Riparian habitats, often characterized by particular trees and shrub species that line the banks of most rivers and streams in the lowlands and foothills of King County.
King County contains four major marine habitats: backshore, intertidal and shallow subtidal, deep subtidal, and riverine/sub-estuarine. Descriptions of each of these habitats and the types of flora and fauna associated with them are provided below.
The history of land use in King County has produced a lowland and foothill landscape of bewildering variety. The once continuous forest of western hemlock, Douglas-fir, and redcedar has given way to a patchwork of lawns, parks, playgrounds, woodlots, greenbelts, old fields, croplands, tree farms, and remnant forests set amid a landscape of urban, suburban, rural, and commercial uses, all joined and, at the same time, separated by a vast network of roads and communication corridors. Despite this apparent richness and variety of patches, this landscape is clearly human-dominated, and habitats for native species have generally been marginalized by the scale and pace of land conversion and resource extraction. This pattern is not, of course, unusual in the history of development.
The natural biodiversity of the lakes of King County is strongly influenced by geography. The county runs from the Cascade mountain crest to the shores of Puget Sound, covering all three different Level III ecoregions (Puget Lowland, North Cascade, and Cascade). The geology, elevation, climate, and ecology in these three ecoregions are all different, and these differences in environmental factors determine the natural biodiversity of the lakes and also influence the risks, vulnerability, and impacts to that biodiversity.
Ecoregions provide a useful framework and background for the discussion of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environs of the county. The discussion of ecoregions is based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ecoregion conventions, which result in units similar to European biogeographical regions because they denote areas of general similarity in ecosystems.
Ecoregions provide a useful framework and background for the discussion of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environs of the county. The discussion of ecoregions is based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ecoregion conventions, which result in units similar to European biogeographical regions because they denote areas of general similarity in ecosystems.
Ecoregions provide a useful framework and background for the discussion of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environs of the county. The discussion of ecoregions is based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ecoregion conventions, which result in units similar to European biogeographical regions because they denote areas of general similarity in ecosystems.
Learn more about demographics in King County, Washington. The U.S. Census Bureau published the following quick facts.