Streams flow in a network and grow in size and capacity from their headwaters until they flow into another stream or river.   Hydrologists characterize stream size by assigning them an ‘order’.  For instance, a first order stream has no streams that drain into it.   When two first order streams flow into one another, a second order stream is created.  Similarly, when two second order streams flow into one another, a third order stream is created, and so forth.

What is a watershed?   A watershed is any area of land on which rain falls and drains into a river system.   Each river has its own watershed.  The land area making a watershed is bound on each side by a divide.   On the other side of the divide, the water flows towards another river system.

The Spring River begins along the border of Lawrence and Barry counties in Missouri and flows west-northwest until it empties into the Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees in Oklahoma. The entire basin is 2,271 square miles and consists of 9 sub-basins.   Their names and characteristics are provided in the table below.

Source: http://www.ozarkcaving.com/springs/jspring.html
 

The Spring River Basin is characterized by many springs, resulting from the Karst formations.  Below is a list of springs in the basin.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) maintains several gaging stations that measure water flow in rivers and streams. They also have several water quality monitoring stations. Real-time gage data can be found on the USGS website at http://www.usgs.gov   The table below shows all gages and water quality monitoring stations that have been operated throughout the Spring  River Basin .  Currently, there are no gages operating within the basin.

Permanent streams flow all year round usually by relying on input from groundwater sources.  When a stream flows at normal discharge, this is called ‘base flow’.   When runoff flows into streams and it rises to full capacity, this is called ‘bankfull capacity’.   You can actually see the bankfull level on the banks of streams that are running at baseflow.  When the streams’ flow exceeds the bankfull capacity, this is termed a ‘flood’.   The streams water spills over into the river’s ‘floodplain’.  Flooding occurs regularly in non-managed streams and provides an important connection between the river and its floodplain habitats.  The floodplain is a very productive area, and provides nutrients to  the river.   Small wetlands and backwaters are also found in floodplains, and these often provide habitat for amphibians and fish to lay their eggs.   When the river spills into its floodplain, the fish eggs that have hatched and matured are released back into the river to live.   There are 99.8miles of permanent streams in the Spring   River Basin .

Not all streams flow all year long.   These are called “intermittent streams”.   They are usually streams of a lower order (smaller), and they are found at higher elevations within the watershed.   Because of their elevation, they are not able to rely on groundwater sources to keep flowing.  Within the Spring   River Basin , there are 78.5 miles of intermittent streams.   Some of these, while not flowing, maintain permanent pools of water along their length.  

Losing streams within the Spring  River Basin  in Missouri :