redd
1
9.9
- noun
- Specialized
- The female salmon carefully builds a redd in the gravel to lay her eggs.
- nests known as redds
Examples
-
The subsequent drying and freezing of redds leads to considerable mortality of eggs (Chadwick 1982, Bisaillon et al. 2007).
Academic text (2013) -
These salmon were mating and giving birth next to a wrecked steel barrel, yet their redd seemed, from our vantage point above, quiet and clear and as clean as could be expected in a city creek.
Blog text (14) -
Stream community development depends on disturbances controlled by processes on land (sediment inputs and bank stabilization), in lakes (flow stabilization), and from the ocean (redd formation by salmon).
Academic text (2007) -
During the spawning season, many fish create redds in shallow riverbeds.
-
Researchers studied the number of redds to assess the health of the salmon population.
Surface Forms
Etymology
The word redd comes from an old northern word meaning 'to clear'. Salmon move gravel to make a shallow nest to 'lay eggs', so a redd is the cleared patch of riverbed where the fish lay their eggs.