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A garden pond is a water feature constructed in a water garden or designed landscape, normally for aesthetic purposes, to provide wildlife habitat, or for swimming.
Garden ponds can be excellent wildlife habitats and may contribute to the protection of freshwater wildlife. Invertebrate animals (such as dragonflies and water beetles) and insectivorous vertebrates such as amphibians (frogs and toads), turtles and waterbirds can colonize new ponds quickly. [1] Ornamental fishes are also frequently stocked in larger ponds to provide aesthetics and algae control, as well as pest control against mosquito larvae infestation.
Garden pond owners have the potential to make many original and valuable observations about the ecology of small waterbodies, which garden ponds replicate.
There are several problems that can result from garden ponds. In particular, they can be pathways for the spread of invasive plants. In the UK, the invasive species Crassula helmsii and Myriophyllum aquaticum have both escaped from garden ponds. These plants cause considerable practical problems in protecting freshwater. [2]
Amphibious species such as frogs, toads, and newts are common in garden ponds, especially in overgrown areas with algae and reeds. Without proper precautions being taken by pond owners, such areas can harbour excessive frogspawn and may pose a challenge.
Cases of high rodent activity are also common in garden ponds, with field mice, rats, and voles taking refuge in freshwater areas such as garden ponds. Consuming pondwater contaminated with rat urine can cause infections such as Weil's disease or leptospirosis.
In tropical climates, garden ponds may become breeding sites for mosquitoes and increase the spread of diseases carried by these insects. [3]
Ponds may be created by natural processes or by people; however, the origin of the hole in the ground makes little difference to the kind of wildlife that will be found in the pond. Much more important is whether the pond is polluted or clean, how close it is to other wetlands and its depth, particularly whether it dries out from time to time and how many fish (if any) there are.
Naturally, ponds vary more in their physical and chemical conditions from day to day than other freshwater, like rivers. People often install pumps in garden ponds to counter these natural tendencies, particularly to maintain higher levels of dissolved oxygen. Although this is generally unnecessary for wildlife, it may be essential to keep fish in a garden pond. For ponds with polluted nutrient-rich tapwater added to them, filters can be used to reduce the abundance of algae. [4]
Ponds outside of gardens are fed by four main water sources: rain, inflows (springs and streams), surface runoff, and groundwater. The wildlife value of ponds is greatly affected by the extent to which these water sources are unpolluted. Garden ponds are generally not fed by inflows or groundwater, except in the larger and rural gardens. Usually, the pond will be filled by a combination of tap water, rainwater, and surface runoff – and lost to evaporation.
In soils that lack natural clay, additional water loss to drainage and permeation is prevented by a liner. Pond liners are PVC or EPDM foils that are placed between the soil of the pond bed and the water. Liners can also be made from puddled clay, and ponds on free-draining soils can even be self-sealing with fine sediments washed into the pond.
Ponds tend to dry out if excessive water is lost to evaporation. Evaporation is more common in the summer season, when increases in temperature and lack of rainfall contribute to dry conditions, creating seasonal ponds (or vernal pools) that usually dry out once a year. These seasonal ponds provide specialized habitat for many plant and animal species, particularly amphibians and invertebrates. Oftentimes, seasonal ponds are utilized as a breeding ground, allowing amphibian (such as frogs and toads) and invertebrate (such as fairy shrimp) larvae space to develop without aquatic predators like fish.
Ponds or swimming ponds can be constructed by an isolating membrane or membranes or (on an organic model sometimes called natural pools) contained by a layer of loam. For all variants no chemicals or devices disinfect or maintain water, the water is instead cleared through the use of biological filters, aquatic plants, or other organisms used in water purification (zooplankton). [5] [6] [7]
The first such pools were built in the early 1980s in Austria, where they are known as "Schwimmteiche". The first was built by Werner Gamerith and Richard Weixler [8] in Gamerith's private garden in the 1980s. [9] : 16 The market slowly grew, and by 2016 there were around 20,000 such swimming ponds in Europe. [9] : 19
The first public swimming pool in North America built and maintained in this way, was finished at Webber Park in Minneapolis in 2015. [10]
An organization called the International Organization for Natural Bathing Waters (IOB) sets the guidelines for such pools. [11]
In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants. More in general, the word can be used for any low-lying and seasonally waterlogged terrain. In Europe and in agricultural literature low-lying meadows that require draining and embanked polderlands are also referred to as marshes or marshland.
An aquatic animal is any animal, whether vertebrate or invertebrate, that lives in water for all or most of its lifetime. Many insects such as mosquitoes, mayflies, dragonflies and caddisflies have aquatic larvae, with winged adults. Aquatic animals may breathe air or extract oxygen from water through specialised organs called gills, or directly through the skin. Natural environments and the animals that live in them can be categorized as aquatic (water) or terrestrial (land). This designation is polyphyletic.
Water garden or aquatic garden, is a term sometimes used for gardens, or parts of gardens, where any type of water feature is a principal or dominant element. The primary focus is on plants, but they will sometimes also house waterfowl, or ornamental fish, in which case it may be called a fish pond. They vary enormously in size and style.
Freshwater ecosystems are a subset of Earth's aquatic ecosystems. They include lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, springs, bogs, and wetlands. They can be contrasted with marine ecosystems, which have a larger salt content. Freshwater habitats can be classified by different factors, including temperature, light penetration, nutrients, and vegetation. There are three basic types of freshwater ecosystems: Lentic, lotic and wetlands. Freshwater ecosystems contain 41% of the world's known fish species.
Vernal pools, also called vernal ponds or ephemeral pools, are seasonal pools of water that provide habitat for distinctive plants and animals. They are considered to be a distinctive type of wetland usually devoid of fish, and thus allow the safe development of natal amphibian and insect species unable to withstand competition or predation by fish. Certain tropical fish lineages have however adapted to this habitat specifically.
Lithobates sylvaticus or Rana sylvatica, commonly known as the wood frog, is a frog species that has a broad distribution over North America, extending from the boreal forest of the north to the southern Appalachians, with several notable disjunct populations including lowland eastern North Carolina. The wood frog has garnered attention from biologists because of its freeze tolerance, relatively great degree of terrestrialism, interesting habitat associations, and relatively long-range movements.
An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem found in and around a body of water, in contrast to land-based terrestrial ecosystems. Aquatic ecosystems contain communities of organisms—aquatic life—that are dependent on each other and on their environment. The two main types of aquatic ecosystems are marine ecosystems and freshwater ecosystems. Freshwater ecosystems may be lentic ; lotic ; and wetlands.
Periphyton is a complex mixture of algae, cyanobacteria, heterotrophic microbes, and detritus that is attached to submerged surfaces in most aquatic ecosystems. The related term Aufwuchs refers to the collection of small animals and plants that adhere to open surfaces in aquatic environments, such as parts of rooted plants.
The Houston toad, formerly Bufo houstonensis, is an endangered species of amphibian that is endemic to Texas in the United States. This toad was discovered in the late 1940s and named in 1953. It was among the first amphibians added to the United States List of Endangered Native Fish and Wildlife and is currently protected by the Endangered Species Act of 1973 as an endangered species. The Houston toad was placed as "endangered" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species from 1986 to 2022, and has worsened to "critically endangered" since then, with fewer than 250 mature individuals believed to remain in the wild as of 2021. Their kind is threatened every day as they continue to suffer from a loss of habitat, extreme drought, and massive wildfires. Their typical life expectancy is at least 3 years but it may exceed this number.
Spea hammondii, also known as the western spadefoot, western spadefoot toad, Hammond's spadefoot, or Hammond's spadefoot toad, is a species of amphibian in the family Scaphiopodidae. It is found in western California (USA) and northwestern Baja California (Mexico). The specific name hammondii is in honor of physician and naturalist William Alexander Hammond.
A lake ecosystem or lacustrine ecosystem includes biotic (living) plants, animals and micro-organisms, as well as abiotic (non-living) physical and chemical interactions. Lake ecosystems are a prime example of lentic ecosystems, which include ponds, lakes and wetlands, and much of this article applies to lentic ecosystems in general. Lentic ecosystems can be compared with lotic ecosystems, which involve flowing terrestrial waters such as rivers and streams. Together, these two ecosystems are examples of freshwater ecosystems.
The boreal toad is the nominate subspecies of the western toad. They are commonly found in the Southern Rocky Mountains, and their population has recently been on the decline due to an emerging amphibian disease, chytrid fungus. The boreal toad is currently listed as an endangered species by Colorado and New Mexico. It is known in Colorado as the only alpine species of toad.
A perennial stream is a stream that has continuous flow of surface water throughout the year in at least parts of its catchment during seasons of normal rainfall, as opposed to one whose flow is intermittent. In the absence of irregular, prolonged or extreme drought, a perennial stream is a watercourse, or segment, element or emerging body of water which continually delivers groundwater. For example, an artificial disruption of stream, variability in flow or stream selection associated with the activity in hydropower installations, do not affect this status. Perennial streams do not include stagnant water, reservoirs, cutoff lakes and ponds that persist throughout the year. All other streams, or parts of them, should be considered seasonal rivers or lakes. The stream can cycle from intermittent to perpetual through multiple iterations.
The wildlife of Israel includes the flora and fauna of Israel, which is extremely diverse due to the country's location between the temperate and the tropical zones, bordering the Mediterranean Sea in the west and the desert in the east. Species such as the Syrian brown bear and the Arabian ostrich have become extinct in Israel because of their loss of habitat. As of May 2007, 190 nature reserves have been established in Israel.
The African bullfrog, also known as the giant bullfrog or the South African burrowing frog, is a species of frog in the family Pyxicephalidae. It is also known as the pixie frog due to its scientific name. It is found in Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and possibly the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It has been extirpated from Eswatini. It has long been confused with the edible bullfrog, and species boundaries between them, including exact range limits, are not fully understood. Additionally, P. angusticeps of coastal East Africa only was revalidated as a separate species in 2013.
A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression, either naturally or artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing the two, although defining a pond to be less than 5 hectares in area, less than 5 metres (16 ft) in depth and with less than 30% with emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing the ecology of ponds from those of lakes and wetlands. Ponds can be created by a wide variety of natural processes, or they can simply be isolated depressions filled by runoff, groundwater, or precipitation, or all three of these. They can be further divided into four zones: vegetation zone, open water, bottom mud and surface film. The size and depth of ponds often varies greatly with the time of year; many ponds are produced by spring flooding from rivers. Ponds are usually freshwater but may be brackish in nature. Saltwater pools, with a direct connection to the sea to maintain full salinity, may sometimes be called 'ponds' but these are normally regarded as part of the marine environment. They do not support fresh or brackish water-based organisms, and are rather tidal pools or lagoons.
Freshwater biology is the scientific biological study of freshwater ecosystems and is a branch of limnology. This field seeks to understand the relationships between living organisms in their physical environment. These physical environments may include rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, lakes, reservoirs, or wetlands. Knowledge from this discipline is also widely used in industrial processes to make use of biological processes involved with sewage treatment and water purification. Water presence and flow is an essential aspect to species distribution and influences when and where species interact in freshwater environments.
The Greenwich Peninsula Ecology Park is a park situated along the River Thames in the Greenwich Peninsula in South London. The park reflects the nature of the original marshland on the peninsula. The park provides a haven for many different species of bird, plants and bugs and acts as an important brownfield land to control urban sprawl. The park is a partnership project of Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and now managed by The Conservation Volunteers (TCV). The area of the park is 11 hectares and is half aquatic and half terrestrial. Development was completed in 2000 and the park opened to public in 2002. In April 2011 the Trust took on the management of a new site nearby, the Meantime Nursery, with aims to create on vacant development land a resource for the community and for nature conservation. The park is a Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade I.
The eastern mosquitofish was introduced to Australia in 1925, and had spread from the northeast coasts to New South Wales, southern Australia, and parts of Western Australia by 1934. By the 21st century, known populations of wild mosquitofish had occurred in every state and territory except the Northern Territory, found in swamps, lakes, billabongs, thermal springs, salt lakes, and ornamental ponds. Mosquitofish are considered a noxious pest, especially in New South Wales and Queensland, and it is illegal to release them into the wild or transport them live into any of the states or territories. Mosquitofish were introduced by military and local councils to control mosquito populations; however, there has been no evidence that Gambusia has had any effect in controlling mosquito populations or mosquito-borne diseases. Studies have shown that Gambusia can suffer mortalities if fed only on mosquito larvae, and survivors show poor growth and maturation. Gambusia typically eat zooplankton, beetles, mayflies, caddis flies, mites and other invertebrates; mosquito larvae make up only a small portion of their diet.
A drought refuge is a site that provides permanent fresh water or moist conditions for plants and animals, acting as a refuge habitat when surrounding areas are affected by drought and allowing ecosystems and core species populations to survive until the drought breaks. Drought refuges are important for conserving ecosystems in places where the effects of climatic variability are exacerbated by human activities.
Backyards that feature natural pools trade chlorine for plants, don't need to be closed for winter and may feature kois with names like Cutie.
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