Rivers

Ecologist doc. RNDr. Tomáš Derka, PhD. from Faculty of Natural Science Comenius University Bratislava, explain on an example of Rudava river the importance of dead wood in rivers. Wood in riverbed presents an important substrate for various organisms, provides shelter but in particular plays a crucial role as an element of the river dynamics, which directly shapes the riverbed and so creates various microhabitats. At the end present the comparison to the artificial – regulated riverbed and described it as a “wet desert“. Planned restoration of this part of Rudava will create a natural riverbed on 4km length.