Rachel

The Plants and Animals in Ponds Click on the title to go to Rachel's Website

The plants and animals in ponds was a very interesting topic. I also included the oxygen level, acidity, and temperatures in ponds. The reason I did this topic was because I wanted to do some kind of water ecosystem, and somebody had already studied oceans. Figured that swamps, streams, and lakes would be the same as ponds since they are all freshwater. When I first started this project, I wanted to learn about the zones in ponds (more about that later), the plants and animals (obviously), and the acidity of the water (more about that later, too). I pretty much learned everything that I wanted to learn. My research mostly went the way I expected it to. I did my research by reading something in a book or a website and writing it on a fact card. I found my information in several books, like Pond Life, Tracking the Unearthly Creatures of Marsh and Pond, Algae, and That Remarkable Creature, the Snail. www.enchantedlearning.com provided a lot of information on animals. www.liveaquaria.com/products/scateg.cfm said a lot about which kinds of plants grow best in domesticated ponds. It was hardest to find information on microscopic plants and animals. My first subtopic was arthropods. Arthropods are animals with an exoskeleton and at least four legs. They are divided into three categories: insects, crustaceans, and spiders. Right now I'm just going to talk about insects and crustaceans. One of the insects I studied was the dragonfly (Anax junius). The earliest known dragonflies are from 300 million years ago and were several feet long. Today's dragonflies breath through spiracles which are tin holes in their body, instead of using lungs or gills. They eat insect larvae, worms, small crustaceans, and small fish. Another insect is water striders (Gerris marginatus). Water striders look like spiders that are skating on the surfaceof the water except that they only have six legs. Their weight is so evenly distributed that they can float on the surface easily. They use their front set of legs for catching prey, their middle set for paddles, and their back set for steering. Mayflies ( Hexagenia bilineata) have four almost transparent wings. The nymphs have seven pairs of gills since they live underwater. Mayfly nymphs are also called naiads and the adults are called imagos. Female mosquitoes are the only ones that bite and suck blood. Males eat flower nectar, and females eat blood and nectar. When the females bite an animal with a disease, they take some of the germs along with them so the next animal they bite gets the disease too. Malaria, encephalitis, yellow fever, dengue fever, dog heartworm, and West Nile Virus are spread this way, so it is a good thing that this rarely happens. This group of arthropods is crustaceans. Crustaceans include shrimp, lobsters, and several very small animals. Shrimp live in oceans, except for freshwater shrimp, which live in swamps and ponds. Fairy shrimp are my favorite kind of crustacean, because they are so colorful - they can be red, blue, green, or brown. They are the only kind of arthropod that can swim on their backs, except for backswimmers. Tadpole shrimp burrow in the mud under ponds and live there. Clam shrimp live in shells that are a lot like clamshells. Crayfish are related to lobsters and are sometimes eaten like lobsters. They mostly eat dead animals, but they sometimes hunt for their food. Copepods look like crayfish except that they are a lot smaller and their bodies are slightly different. They have two antennas, like crayfish. One antenna is very long, and the other one is very short. They only have one eye (Cyclops!) which can only tell the difference between light and dark. Gastropods are animals that only have one foot with their stomach on top of it. I know it sounds weird, but slugs and snails are gastropods. Snails are the only ones that live in ponds. Snails can carry up to two hundred times their weight, even though I've never seen a snail over an inch and a half long. Snails have mucus that coats their foot, so they can walk on sharp surfaces (like the blade of a knife) and forwards, backwards, up, down and sideways. Most snails eat dead animals and plants, but some will eat live plants. Birds are another common animal in ponds. Some birds, like kingbirds, swallows, blackbirds, tufted titmice, warbles, wrens, and grackles just come to ponds to get a drink. Other birds live in and around ponds. Great blue herons (Ardea herodias) are four feet tall and have a wingspan of up to six feet. Their clutch is three to seven light green eggs. They hunt by stabbing their prey with their sharp beak, tossing it in the air, and catching in their beak. Canada geese (Branta canadensis) have loud, honking calls that some people think are annoying. They also hiss and arch their necks when they feel threatened. Mallard ducks ( Anas platyrhychos) eat insects, worms, frogs, snails, slugs, small shellfish, grass, and any other shore plants. Their nests are in thick undergrowth and are made of grass, leaves, and down woven together. Great egrets (Albus casmerodus) are about three feet tall and have a wingspan of three and a half feet. Their nests are mostly a platform of twig and leaves in a tree or on the ground. Black swan (Cygnus atratus) adults eat water plants and grain. Cygnets (baby swans) eat insects and small invertebrates. Flamingos eat insects, shrimp, algae, and zoaplankton. They are naturally white, but carotene, a chemical in shrimp, turns them pink. Turtles are one easy to find reptile in ponds. Painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) eat small animals and plants, whether they are alive or not. They can be recognized by the red under the edge of their shell. Spotted turtles (Clemmys guttata) have dark shells with yellow spots on them. Garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis) eat worms, fish, tadpoles, and other small animals. Cottonmouths (Ancistrodon piscivorous) are the color of cotton (white) inside of their mouth and are poisonous. American alligators (Alligator mississipiensis) live in ponds, streams, and swamps in southeast North America. Alligators that are more tan eight feet long are very rare now because of urban sprawl. You will find this a lot in Florida especially. Amphibians are animals that are born in water and can live in land or water as adults. Frogs, toads, salamanders, and caecilians are amphibians. Most frogs stay ponds until after the breeding season. Then they go live in woods or fields surrounding the pond. Spring peepers (Hyla crucifer) and wood frogs (Rana sylvatica) both do that. Spring peepers are green or brown one to one and a half-inch long frogs. The males make that loud peeping sound in spring that can be heard up to a mile away. Spring peepers, common tree frogs (Hyla versicolor), Pacific tree frogs (Hyla regilla), and green tree frogs (Hyla cinerea) have round toes that are built for sticking to branches. Bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) are the biggest frogs in North America. Their tadpoles take two years to mature. Toads lay eggs in strings, not bunches, like salamanders. Pond Life, one of my books, says that American toads (Bufo Americanis) are two to four inches tall. I have seen young toads in my backyard that were only half an inch tall. Fowler's toads (Bufo fowleri) are two to three inches long. Spadefoot toads (Scaphiopus holbroki) sometimes move incredibly far away from ponds, but they always go back in the breeding season to mate and lay eggs. Sirens (Siren lacertina), a type of salamander, are two feet tall and are the only kind that do not have hind legs. Sirens bite if they feel cornered or threatened. Mudpuppies, (Necturus Maculosus) eat fish, insects, mollusks, and crayfish. European Spotted Newts (Notophthalmus viridescens) are gray-green with yellow stomachs. They have a sub-adult stage called red Efts. Red Efts are red-orange with darker red spots on their back. They live in forests around the ponds until they become adults two to three years later. Mud Salamanders (Pseudotriton montanes), rather than swimming, burrow in the mud under streams and ponds. Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) are gray, wrinkly, and up to eighteen inches long. If you want to learn more about salamanders, read my fourth grade ISP report on the Oberlin Schools web site. Microscopic animals are called zoaplankton. Microscopic plants are called phytoplankton. Plankton comes from the Greek word that means drifting. Amoebas (Amoeba proteus) and parameciem (Paramecium aurelia) are common types of zoaplankton. They are one-celled amoebas and only get to one millimeter across. Algae is a common type of phytoplankton. Algae is a big group of one-celled plants that live at the surface of the pond or any wet surface. Blue-green algae (Anobae-nocirinalis) is usually a sign that the pond is polluted, because blue-green algae likes to grow in polluted water. Green algae can live in ponds, lakes, or oceans. Both kinds can live as big groups of cells, or they can live by themselves. Euglenas (Euglena viridis) are my favorite kind of microscopic plant because they can be classified as plants or animals. They are classified as animals since they can swim around on their own, but they also make chlorophyll like plants. Diatoms (Cymbella lanceolata) are another type of algae. They can also move. Ponds are divided up into zones. The first zone, the littoral habitat, is the whole pond. The Emergent Plant Zone is closest to the shore. It has plants with their stems and leaves out of the water and are rooted to the ground. The kinds of plants and animals that live here are cattails, pickerelweeds, algae, frogs, birds, mammals, protozoans, worms, insects, snails, and small fish. The Floating-Leaf Plant Zone is the second closest to the shore. It has water lilies, water ferns, duckweed, water celery, snails, clams, fish, mayflies, and other insects. The Submersed Plant Zone is the closest to the middle of the pond and has pondweeds, water milfoil, catfish, waterweeds, and hornworts. Most plants only have their flowers in the air. The rest of the plant is underwater. This paragraph was my favorite to research. I have more fact cards on plants than on any other subtopic. The second smallest plants are duckweed and watermeal. Except for watermeal being smaller, they are very similar plants. They both save up food during spring and summer. When the weather starts getting cold, they sink to the bottom of the pond and live on the food they saved up. In spring, they float up to the surface of the water and start the cycle over again. Great duckweed (Spirodela polyrhiza) has several rootlets growing from it. Lesser duckweed (Lemna minor) is smaller and only has one rootlet. Ivy duckweed (Lemna triscula) usually links together to make big sheets of duckweed. The next biggest plants are water lilies. Native Americans used to eat the roots and seeds of lotuses (Nelumbo lutea). Western water lilies (Nuphar polysepalum) have nine sepals, even though all of the other water lilies only have six. Fanwort (Cabomba caroliniana) has stems that are coated in slime and is sometimes used in aquariums. Little water lilies (Nuphar microphyllum) flowers are the smallest type of water lilies, since they are only an inch wide. Scented water lilies (Nymphaea odorata) smell really sweet and are one of the most common types of water lilies. The next biggest plants are ferns, pondweeds, and grass. Rattlesnake ferns (Botrychium virginianum) are sometimes two feet tall and have triangular fronds. Adder's tongue ferns (Ophiglossum vulgatum) are closely related to rattlesnake ferns and are for to fifteen inches tall. Horned pondweed (Zannichellia palustris) has tiny nutlets with teeth that stick to clothes and fur. Leafy pondweed (Potamogeton foliosus) has brown flower spikes like cattails. Floating brownleaf (Potamogeton natans) and variable pondweed (Potamogeton gramineous) are weird looking pondweeds. The leaves on the top sections of the stems are filled with air and float at the surface of the water. The leaves on the bottom half are long, thin, and do not float. Crisp pondweed (Potamogeton crispus) is one of the few plants that can grow in clean or polluted water. Cattails grow in marshes and on riverbanks. There are two types of cattails-broad leafed (Typha latifolia) and narrow leafed (Typha angustifolia). Broad-leafed cattails are six to eight feet tall and narrow leafed cattails are for to six feet tall. Short-awn foxtail (Alopecurus aequalis) grows anywhere there is freshwater in northern North America. Cord grass (Spartina pectinata) has roots that are strong enough to hold sand together. Cut grass (Leersia oryzoides) is called that because it has tiny teeth on the edges of its leaves. Wild rice (Zizana aquatica) is different from the rice you can eat at a Chinese restaurant. It grows in northeastern North America and is eaten by birds. Waterweeds usually live in the Submerged Plant Zone. Waterweed seeds are never more than 0.1 inches long, so they come in clusters of lots of seeds. Bushy waterweeds (Najas flexilis) grows bushy in shallow water and grows long and wavy in water that is at least twenty feet deep. Spiny waterweeds (Najas marina) are another plant that has teeth on its leaves. Southern waterweed (Najas guadalupensis) usually grows in southern USA. Blue flags (Iris versicolor) are related to the type of iris that people grow in their gardens and get up to four feet tall. Water hemlock (Cicuta maculata) roots look like sweet potatoes; they do not taste like them as they are poisonous. Pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea) and sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) have sweet smelling juice in their flowers that attract and eat insects. They both live in marshes. Water shamrocks look like clovers, even though they are a type of fern. The only way to tell the different species apart is by looking at the spore cases. The biggest types of pond plants are trees. Water trees have two kinds of roots-stiltroots and breathing roots. Stiltroots anchor the tree to the ground and breathing roots stick up out of the ground and are exposed to air. A common type of willow that lives near ponds are black willows (Salix negra). Five different kinds of oaks that live near ponds are water, overcup, white, and willow oaks. Cedars, willows, and mangroves are the only kind of trees that live in the Emergent Plant Zone. All of the other kinds live on or near the shore. Some more interesting and unusual trees are cabbage palmettos (Sabal palmetto), eastern larches (Larix laricina), swamp pines, Pinus serotina), and white cedars (Chamaecyparis thyoides). Mammals are not as common in ponds, but you can still find some there. Capybaras (Hydrochaeris hydrochaeris) are the biggest rodents in the world. They are sixty to one hundred pounds and talk to other capybaras in whistles and barks. They have webbed toes to help them swim, like some frogs. Capybaras are eaten by caimans, jaguars, ocelots, eagles, really big snakes, and people. Raccoons (Procyon lotor) do not wash their food to get the dirt off of it. They have such a good sense of touch that getting their food wet helps them feel it better, which helps them learn more about their food. Raccoons like to eat fruit, corn, nuts, turtle eggs, frogs, toads, worms, grubs, crayfish, and bird eggs, but they will eat almost anything they can find. River otters (Lutra canadensis) are actually a type of weasel. Their nose and ears automatically close when they go underwater, which happens a lot. River otters eat crustaceans, amphibians, fish, insects, mole, mice, voles and birds. North American beavers (Castor canadensis) are one of the few animals that change the environment to make it better for themselves. They eat water plants and the cambium of willow, alder, cottonwood, birch, and aspen trees. Duck-billed platypuses (Ornithorhynhus anatinus) have fur, lays eggs, and the young drink their mom's milk when they hatch. Echidnas re very similar, but they do not live in ponds. Male platypuses have poisonous spikes on their hind legs. They eat crayfish, worms, snails, insects, fish, and shrimp. Some kinds of rodents, like rice rats (Oryzomys palustris) and water shrews (Sorex palustris) can swim very well, but other rodents stick to the shores, fields, or woods around ponds. Little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) sleep during the day and come out at night to hunt for insects like mosquitoes. Fish are another type of common animal in ponds. Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalus) jump out of the water to eat flying insects, but rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) stay in the water and eat swimming mollusks, crustaceans, and small fish. Goldfish (Carrassius auratus) are actually a type of carp. Thousands of years ago, people in China found some bright orange fish. They bred the fish until they got a new kind of fish that was very pretty and made a good pet. Goldfish eat small plants and animals. Most fish, like lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens), largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), and yellow perch (Perca flavescens) eat that kind of food. Red-bellied piranhas (Pygocentrus natterti) eat fish, crustaceans, mollusks, insects, birds, amphibians, rodents, dead animals, or pretty much any kind of meat. When they break a tooth on all that food, it just grows back. Piranhas are eaten by caimans, water snakes, turtles, birds, otters, humans, and other piranhas. Flatworms (Degesia tigrina) could be called the weirdest, but also the coolest worms on earth. They are almost impossible to kill. In Tracking the Unearthly Creatures of Marsh and Pond, the chapter on flatworms is called "The Creatures that Defy Death". If someone takes a knife and cuts a flatworms' head or tail in half, the halves form two new heads or tails. If someone completely cuts off a head or tail, it grows back. If someone cuts a flatworm completely in half, the halves grow into two new flatworms. I told you they are weird. Another type of worms is tubifex worms (Tubifex tubifex). They bury their heads in the dirt and let their tails wave around in the water. Probiscis worms (Prostoma rubrum) are also called ribbon worms, because they look like ribbons. The horsehair worms can get up to forty inches long and look like hairs from a horses' tail. Like I said before, I did not just study plants and animals, I studied the temperatures, gas levels, and pH levels. The pH level is how acidic a liquid is. The pH scale goes from zero, which is very acidic, to seven, which is neutral, and to fourteen, which is very alkaline. PH levels have a big effect on some animals. For example, mollusks with shells made of limestone cannot live in acidic water because when carbon dioxide mixes with water, it makes weak carbonic acid, which makes the water more acidic. Then the carbonic acid reacts with the limestone and kills the mollusk. That reaction makes carbonates and bicarbonates, which also effects the pH levels. Sulfur bacteria live in acidic water, stentors (a type of one-celled animal) live in alkaline water, and freshwater clams live in alkaline water. The three major gases in our air are carbon dioxide, oxygen, and nitrogen. In water, there is usually about 78.3 % nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and about 0.03% carbon dioxide. If the water is colder, there will be more oxygen in it. In the summer, there are three layers of different temperatures. The top layer is usually sixty-five to seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit, the middle layer is forty-five to sixty-five degrees, and the bottom layer is thirty-nine to forty-five degrees. Most animals and plants live in the top layer. One person I learned about while I was researching was Howard G. Smith. He is not very famous except that he wrote Tracking the Unearthly Creatures of Marsh and Pond. His book is about his experiences exploring ponds and marshes. My favorite chapter is about Smith and his friend going fishing and his friend caught something gray and slimy. He threw it back in the water and decided to go home. Later they found out that the thing was a hellbender (a type of salamander). The way he wrote the story made it sound really funny. The book also has a lot of information on the animals he found. This paragraph has miscellaneous facts that do not go in any of the other paragraphs. There are five different kinds of ponds-bog, cypress, mountain, meadow-stream, and farm ponds. Some cypress ponds are dry during part of the year, and all of them have cypress (cedar), willow, and bay trees on the shores. Bog ponds usually have plants like cedars, alders, and sphagnum moss. Meadow-stream ponds are formed when a stream widens so much that its current slows down or stops. Pondweeds, stoneworts, cattails, and water shield grow there. Mountain ponds usually formed when a glacier moves over land and carves big holes, which fill up with water. They are usually covered with ice. Farm ponds are made by people and are used for fishing and boating. They usually do not have plants in them. There are several careers connected to my topic. The most obvious career is a limnologist, which is a scientist who studies ponds. There are also biologists, who study living things, zoologists, who study animals, and herbologists, who study plants. All of these scientists have to go to college for four years and to graduate school for three years. Doing this project has been good for me because I learned a lot and got better at finding information and writing reports. Now I can identify a lot of animals and plants around lakes, streams, marshes, and ponds. If I had a longer time to work, I would explore some of the ponds around Oberlin. Most of them were frozen when I was researching. If you read my whole report, and did not skip over any paragraphs, (I know it is a long report) next time you are near a pond, you might be able to identify some of the plants and animals.   Glossary Arthropod - animal with an exoskeleton and at least four legs Breathing roots - a type of root that comes out of the ground and are exposed to air Caecilian - a type of amphibian that lives underground and looks like a really big worm Clutch - a group of eggs laid at the same time Cygnet - baby swan Down - a type of soft, fuzzy feather that keeps birds warm Exoskeleton - a kind of skeleton that covers the outside of arthropods' bodies Gastropod - an animal that has one foot with their stomach on top of it Imago - mayfly adult Invertebrate - an animal without a backbone Naiad - mayfly nymph pH level - how acidic or alkaline the water is Phytoplanton - microscopic plants Spiracles - tiny holes in dragonflies' bodies that they breath through Spore - a special type of seed that ferns and moss have Stiltroot - the type of root that anchors the tree to the ground Zoaplanton - microscopic animals   Bibliography Alexander, Taylor R, Burnet, Will, and Zim, Herbert S. (1970). Botany. New York. Burnie, David. (1988). Trees. New York. Pringle, Laurence. (1975). Water Plants. New York. Reid, George K. (1967). Pond Life. New York. Schisgall, Oscar. (1970). That Remarkable Creature, the Snail. New York. Schlighting, Harold E. and Mary Southworth. (1971). Algae. Austin. Smith, Howard G. (1972). Tracking the Unearthly Creatures of Marsh and Pond. Nashville. Unknown author. Enchanted Learning. [Online] Available http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/pond/pondlife.shtml, unknown date. Unknown author. Live Aquaria. [Online] Available http://www.liveaquaria.com/products/scateg.cfm, unknown date. .

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