The Mississippi River is a major migration corridor for waterfowl and provides habitat for more than 150 fish and 40 freshwater mussel species. The Upper Mississippi River.
Numbers indicate reservoirs formed by navigation dams and known locally as pools.
Most of the changes to the river ecosystem were either designed for navigational improvements or to control the movement of river water. Here we investigate some of the habitat changes at various levels of resolution. Similar increases in these two classes were found at Pools 5 and 13. In Pools 4 and 26 increases were less significant. In many pools inundation created an impounded area with a mosaic of islands, open water, and marsh, which, in general, increased aquatic habitat for fish and wildlife.