A scheme is outlined to classify watersheds as ecosystems, based on their natural attributes. Two physical factors of the environment, climate and geology, are selected as state factors. Climate is the master factor that supplies energy and water to all ecosystems; geologic structure supplies the materal from which the forces of climate carve landforms to establish ecosystems. At the next lower level, soil and vegetation interact in a succession of transactions to produce a mosaic of tesseras within each watershed. It is these interacting tesseras that moderate climate and store energy within the ecosystem that influences the embedded stream. At the bottom of the scale is the stream with its passive role and inability to interact with the higher factors of the ecosystem. Thus, we have a controlling force consisting of two elements (climate and geology), a reacting force (soil and vegetation) that responds by circular conditioning to controlling forces, and at the lowest level, the stream which responds to all factors of the living system within its watershed.(KEY TERMS: watersheds; ecosystem; classification; physioclimatic control; transactional factors.)

Responsible resource use depends largely on accurate inventories, which implies the creation of a land classification system because an inventory without classification is mainly an unorganized list. In this paper we develop a simple classification system based on causes of differences between classes and integrate the riverine with the terrestrial to form the basic ecological system. Within this concept, diverse users of the system such as fishery managers, timber harvesters, and livestock grazers have a common classification base from which to operate. Thus, this land‐water classification system will help managers meet the increasing demands placed on all resources while giving the fishery the optimum input into the decision‐making process.

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