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Biodiversity is the life all around us. Big and small.

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We are here on the banks of the Sequatchie River,

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which is a really diverse river here in the Southeast U.S,

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which is just an underwater rainforest of aquatic life.

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We have fishes, snails, mussels, crawdads, all different kinds of biodiversity.

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The reason freshwater has so many types is there's just a

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wide range of freshwater habitats from big rivers to mountain streams,

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springs, caves, everything in between.

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Why should we care about this amazing aquatic

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biodiversity we have in the southeastern United States?

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We're humans, we need water.

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The aquatic ecosystem helps clean our water.

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Every species is of brick in that foundation.

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When we lose species, we lose those bricks.

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Now we have to pay more for drinking water.

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We can't go swimming and we can't eat the fish we catch. 

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So, keeping all these little critters and these rivers around

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helps them and it helps us.