As tough as old Bulrush

Bulrush recovering in the New Pond following about 2 weeks of more-or-less complete drought during July and August, when the main shoots and leaves all died

Back from the ‘dead’ in the New Pond is Bulrush (Typha latifolia).

Recovering from the drought, despite having been completely dried out for several weeks, it is now throwing up new shoots. There are two more lurking just out of camera shot.

This really is a pretty tough plant.

On the animal front, water snails are present in low numbers: I guess they mostly won’t reproduce again until next year now. There are four species: Contorted Ram’s-horn, Whirlpool Ram’s-horn, Marsh Snail group and Smooth Ram’s-horn.

Pond Olive mayflies have recolonised.

Chironomid midges are building up: I’ve never tried to identify species in this group (it’s quite possible, though a little time-consuming) so can’t say too much useful about them.

Water beetles are beginning to fly back in: so far, it’s two of our commonest: the Common Black Diving Beetle (Agabus bipustulatus) and the very common scavenger beetle Helophorus brevipalis.

I’m really waiting to see whether any stoneworts will reappear from resting spores, or any of the other underwater species that were previously present: water violet and my pondweeds.

Update on duckweed…or should that be frogweed

Interesting picture from Jon (see comments) of a Common Frog transporting both Common Duckweed and Water Fern.

Like all the best things, its obvious this could happen once you see it happening.

Go to:

http://pondat38nurseryrd.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/old-photos-of-frogs-and-duckweed-plus-azolla/

And the original post is here.

Recovery from acid rain is starting….slowly

My local power station: Didcot

In the 1970s and 1980s acid rain was a big deal. There was an international convention to control it, and many environmental organisations fought against it.

Now as an issue, its mostly forgotten: for example, see the environmental NGOs Blueprint for Water campaign – which doesn’t mention it (and in which I am a consenting participant!).

But the problems caused by acid rain are still there, and there’s not been much recovery yet, as was shown by a new report published a few days ago, to little fanfare.

Funded by the soon to be cash-strapped Defra, the good news is that are definite signs of improvement, but recovery from acid rain is still only limited.

You can read the 5 page summary here, although most people proabably won’t make it through the remaining 478 pages of the rest of the report.

What’s this got to do with ponds? Well, not much actually because the study is based on detailed examination of lakes and headwater streams – important habitats, of course.

We still know nothing of the effects of acid rain on the hundreds of thousands of small waterbodies that dot the uplands.