Water Is Most Intriguing Habitat Element

FOR SOMEONE hoping to establish a wildlife backyard habitat there are four essential elements needed to attract and keep wildlife in that habitat. They include food, space to raise young, cover and water. Of those four, I find that water in the form of a pond the most intriguing.

Years ago, we purchased land in Maine with a wetland running through the property. Both my husband and I could envision a beautiful little pond, with our home to be built on a rise looking down to the future pond.

The wetland area on our land is called a fen, as opposed to a bog. A bog is a nutrient-poor, acidic, waterlogged mat of sphagnum moss fed primarily by rainwater. Our fen consists of a thick layer of peat fed by rain and runoff with an inlet and outlet during part of the year. Perfect for a pond!

When the 50'x70'x8' pond was dug, we were lucky to find that the liner would be a naturally occurring thick layer of clay. All the fill was removed from the site, so there was no berm present and the moss overhung the edges, making it look like it had always been there.

Over the years plants were added, such as pickeral weed, arrowhead and water lilies. Sedges, grasses and rushes came naturally as well as frogs, salamanders and dragonflies. Blue flag iris and hardhack that were already in the fen have spread along with ferns, such as cinnamon and interrupted. These ferns give the pond an almost prehistoric feel. Surrounding the pond are tall tamarack, balsam fir, red maple, black and white spruce plus birch trees. To create a soft layered edge, we added shrubs between the pond and forest edge, such as red-osier dogwood, silky dogwood, buttonbush and viburnums.

The pond is beautiful to look at and has attracted many birds and other wildlife. But for me, the interest in the pond doesn't stop there. Under the water is a whole other world to observe. With a simple dissecting microscope, I can see the incredible amount of life that abounds in one-quarter cup of pond water! This is a world that most people don't think about or even attempt to observe. The pond water is teeming with life that continues to go on through spring, summer, fall and even under the ice in the winter.

Collecting water from the pond in a custard cup,  I place it under the lens of the microscope. Some of the first organisms observed are phytoplankton, the basic producer food group. They consist of diatoms, desmids and other green algae such as euglena and volvox. Zooplanktons, the tiny drifting and swimming animals abound.

Some of the more than 30,000 one-celled animals seen are stentors, paramecium and amoebas which either feed on phytoplankton or subsist on detritus. These are then in turn preyed upon by rotifers, hydra and small crustaceans. The rotifers go swimming by in the field of view and the rotary cilia are observed keeping phytoplankton in check. Other rotifers attach themselves to plant stems with a special "glue"piercing the stem and sucking out the juices.

Often difficult to find are the bryozoans, which form colonies on submerged objects. They are found in still and unpolluted waters. Finding them in our pond assured us that our pond was healthy. But the real thrill was watching them under a microscope . With classical music playing in the background, I felt as if I were watching a ballet, as the bryozoans waved their tentacles in unison with the music, creating currents which brought them their food!

Another interesting creature to watch is the hydra. It is found attached to a twig and consists of a hollow cylindrical body with 5 to 6 long wavy tentacles that can intangle prey and poison it. Hydra, like bryozoans are only found in non-polluted water.

Some of the most abundant animals are the water fleas and copepods. Daphnia, a water flea, feed on algae and debris by the action of their legs sweeping the food into their mouth. The cyclops, a copepod, are also numerous and many times the female is spotted with a large egg sack on both sides of her body.

Numerous insects spend all or part of their life cycle in the water, so often they are observed in that quarter- cup of water. Mayflies, dragonfly, damselfly and stonefly nymphs, along with caddisfly, beetle and mosquito larvae can be present.

For all of those people who enjoy their backyard habitat and especially their pond, take the time to investigate life under the water and truly appreciate the extent of the habitat that has been created!

Jan McIntyre
WindStar Certified Wildlife Habitat Naturalist
Bar Harbor, ME

Comments

[JanetT]

Wow, you've just inspired me to get a microscope! We also have wetlands on our property, with abundant lifeforms. I'm curious though, how you were able to alter the existing fen. Was it not officially delineated wetlands, and thus under the protection of the Clean Water Act? `I would love to enhance our site, but am limited by the Army Corps. We've planted natives, but aren't allowed to alter drainage.