Minor bed

Part of the bed between well-marked river banks in which water entirely flows outside periods of very high-flow and overflowing. The minor bed includes the low-water channel. Its limit is the bankfull discharge channel. In the case of a braided bed, there may be several flow channels. The minor bed is home to varied flora and fauna (fish, invertebrates, crayfish, mussels, diatoms, macrophytes, etc) whose population status is closely linked to the heterogeneity of the bed and to connections with the floodplain and water-dependent areas.