What Are We Looking for Again Pond Decomposers
This week, my students and I took a field trip to a local creek. Getting outside to make observations in nature is one of my favorite hands-on ways to larn well-nigh science and the natural world! Ponds, creeks, and wetlands are some of the best places to do this. These aquatic areas are teaming with life and action – there is so much to picket, listen to, and wonder about. Like well-nigh living creatures, we humans are naturally drawn to water sources. Being outside with my students at the creek this calendar week got me thinking more than about ponds, streams, and wetlands, and their of import part in all kinds of ecosystems...
Perhaps y'all have noticed that some of the best places in your area to see birds, plants, and other wildlife are near water! Where yous notice h2o you usually find an abundance of life! All plants need water to perform photosynthesis, the procedure plants use to make their ain food. A healthy ecosystem will take a healthy food web! An ecosystem with many dissimilar plants will concenter herbivores, or animals that eat plants. You might have seen some herbivores around ponds or streams in your area, such as constitute-eating species of fish, birds, and insects. A thriving plant eater population will, in turn, concenter predators, or animals that chase and eat other animals. Yous may notice predators such as larger fish species similar pike and walleye, too equally otters, heron, king fishers, spiders, and dragonflies. Decomposers, like mushrooms and earthworms, besides thrive in moist environments. Information technology is no surprise that water features similar streams, ponds, and wetlands are the lively, bustling centers of many ecosystems!
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Loons are predators of fish -
Mushrooms are decomposers found in many ecosystems
I became very familiar with aquatic ecosystem health while collecting field samples for an aquatic ecology laboratory several years ago. While going out and collecting samples from streams, ponds, and rivers all over Colorado, I quickly learned that not all aquatic ecosystems are equal. I saw and studied all kinds of aquatic ecosystems – from streams that were lilliputian more stagnant ditches on the sides of roads, to roaring mount rivers alluvion with leap snowmelt. I visited remote beaver meadows miles from the nearest clay road, and likewise popular lakes in national parks that host thousands of hikers, fishers, and sight-seers every year. I studied mountain springs that bubbled out of the footing looking as clean and clear as tap water, and as well streams where the h2o flowed vivid orange, polluted with runoff from mining sites. Information technology didn't take long for me to start noticing some other big differences between these contrasting aquatic ecosystems…
Every bit I visited these places, I would listen, impact, odor, and await – and notice the differences. I heard the sounds of many songbirds, or the sounds of nearby highways. I felt the squishy, moss-covered river banks between my toes as I waded bare-foot in remote streams, or I felt the hardened plant-less dirt under my wader boots on riverbanks where too many boots from too many visitors had over-compacted the soil. I smelled the bawdy scents of decaying leaves and wildflowers, or the stench of manure from a nearby herd of cattle grazing on the sugariness riparian vegetation. I counted the number of native plants, or the number or invasive species.
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A pond most Buena Vista, Colorado -
Making observations of an ecosystem
Ponds, streams, and wetlands are like the heart of many ecosystems. If these water features are unhealthy, the whole ecosystem will decline. Have away a clean and plentiful source of water, and the vegetation volition suffer, sending ripple effects through the local populations of herbivores, predators, and decomposers.
Consequently, these vital water features are as well a great indicator of ecosystem health. If something is not right in an ecosystem, y'all tin can ofttimes observe signs of poor wellness in the streams, ponds, and wetlands. An unhealthy ecosystem cannot back up a various community of plants, herbivores, predators, and decomposers. Scientists monitor ponds, streams, and wetlands due to their importance to animals and plants (and humans) in a variety of environments, and also because the symptoms of ecosystem imbalance are often quite visible at that place.
- Continue to part 2 to acquire how to recognize the signs of a salubrious aquatic ecosystems wherever you go!
- If you lot are looking for ways to teach kids or young students about aquatic ecosystem wellness, you tin can download and impress the free nature periodical page for kids, almost pond ecosystems or purchase the Swimming Ecology Packet on Etsy!
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References and Further Reading
- Environmental Protection Bureau. (2020). Impacts of Mismanaged Trash. Available: https://world wide web.epa.gov/trash-free-waters/impacts-mismanaged-trash
- Environmental Protection Bureau. (2016). Indicators: Benthic Macroinvertebrates. Bachelor: https://www.epa.gov/trash-free-waters/impacts-mismanaged-trash
- Frey, D. (2018). Report shows Yellowstone wolves' bear on on streams. The Wildlife Society. Bachelor: https://wildlife.org/study-shows-yellowstone-wolves-affect-on-streams/
- National Park Service. (2017). Elk and moose exclusion fence. Available: https://world wide web.nps.gov/manufactures/elk-and-moose-exclusion-fence.htm
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Source: https://wildearthlab.com/2021/04/03/healthy-ponds-streams-and-wetlands/
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