Southwestern Sri Lanka rivers and streams

Southwestern Sri Lanka rivers and streams is a freshwater ecoregion in Sri Lanka. The ecoregion is listed in Global 200, a list of ecoregions compiled by the World Wide Fund for Nature for conservation priorities.[1] The extensive network of rivers and streams of Sri Lanka drains a total of 103 distinct natural river basins.[2] Several waterfall habitats have been formed as a result of rivers and streams flowing through high and mid elevation areas. The ecoregion spreads over 15,500 km2 in the wet zone of the southwestern part of Sri Lanka. More than a quarter of the freshwater fishes that have been discovered in Southwestern Sri Lanka rivers and streams are endemic.[3] Nine endemic genera of freshwater fishes of Western Ghats and Sri Lanka hotspot Malpulutta are found only in Sri Lanka.[4] Studies suggest that the number of species still to be discovered is quite high.[3] Until recently wetlands in Sri Lanka were used for drainage, construction sites and land fills.[5]

   Order Temnospondyli - extinct
Subclass Lepospondyli - extinct
Subclass Lissamphibia
   Order Anura
   Order Caudata
   Order Gymnophiona

An aquarium (plural aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium consisting of at least one transparent side in which water-dwelling plants or animals are kept. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, marine mammals, turtles, and aquatic plants. The term combines the Latin root aqua, meaning water, with the suffix -arium, meaning "a place for relating to".[1]

Sri Lanka is home to 245 species of butterflies with 23 of these being endemic to the island.[1] Of the 245 species, 76 are listed as threatened nationally, while Ceylon Rose is designated as critically endangered.[2]Commercial fishing is the activity of capturing fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often pursue fish far into the ocean under adverse conditions. Large scale commercial fishing is also known as industrial fishing.

Conservation International (CI) is a nonprofit organization headquartered in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, that seeks to protect Earth's biodiversity "hotspots," high-biodiversity wilderness areas as well as important marine regions around the globe. The group is also known for its partnerships with local non-governmental organizations and indigenous peoples.True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (Greek: βραχύ/brachy = short, ουρά/οura = tail), or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax. Other animals, such as hermit crabs, king crabs, porcelain crabs, horseshoe crabs and crab lice, are not true crabs.Deforestation is one of the most serious environmental issues in Sri Lanka. In the 1920s, the island had a 49 percent forest cover but by 2005 this had fallen by approximately 20 percent.[1] Between 1990 and 2000, Sri Lanka lost an average of 26,800 ha of forests per year.[2] This amounts to 1.14 percent of average annual deforestation rate.[2] Between 2000 and 2005 rate accelerated to 1.43% per annum. However with a long history of policy and laws towards environmental protection, deforestation rates of primary cover have actually decreased 35% since the end of the 1990s thanks to a strong history of conservation measures.[2] The problem of deforestation in Sri Lanka is not as significant in the southern mountainous regions as it is in northern Sri Lanka, largely due to the nature of environmental protection.[3]

       Partly based on Southwestern Sri Lanka rivers and streams from Wikipedia (licence GFDL, CC-BY-SA 3.0, authors, history, edit this page)