What is the carrying capacity of a stream?

Question

Does anyone know?

Answer 1

The capacity is the amount of anything the stream can carry and still keep flowing.  It carries things floating on the top, entrained in the stream, dragging things along the bottom and things in solution  (dissolved).

Obviously each stream has a specific carrying capacity that can be estimated by knowing the size and shape of the bed and banks, section area and flow rate.

Answer 2

The term carrying capacity refers to populations not rivers. It is the maximum population of living organisms that can be supported by a given area of land.

I think what you are referring to is the capacity of the stream not the carrying capacity. Capacity is the maximum amount of sediment it can transport.