Pond Ecosystem Depends On Homeowner To be Sustained
Whenever you install a pond in the backyard to spruce up your landscaping appeal, you need to know that you are creating an environment for living things. The pond ecosystem will require a certain level of environmental responsibility in order to maintain a livable environment in which many different creatures will be dependant. Even if you have no plans to add fish or other aquatic life to the water, the pond ecosystem will be host to variety of natural animals, birds and bugs and upsetting the system can have disastrous results.
With a properly constructed pond, the homeowner is creating a pond ecosystem that will offer life on at least four levels. Consider the most important ingredient in a pond is the water and keeping it free of chemical contaminants will provide life for many different type of living things. If you look at the pond ecosystem on different level you can understand how caring for the pond provides a positive impact on the overall environment.
Since you already know the water is the most important part of the pond ecosystem, the first level of its ecosystem is the many living things that depend on the water for life. Certain forms of bacteria are going to be present in the water as well as other small, seemingly invisible creatures. Depending on the type of life you want to attract to the pond ecosystem, water plants can provide them with food and nutrition.
Maintaining Strong Links In The Ecosystem Food Chain
Next on the pond ecosystem food chain, will be smallest of living creatures such as zooplankton and Protozoa. Although not the least of the living things in a pond, they are considered some of the lowest form of life on the food chain. They will provide nutrition to the third and fourth levels of the pond ecosystem, helping them sustain life.
The nest step up on the pond ecosystem food chain will be aquatic life, such as worms and insects, all dependant on the lower forms for their nutritional needs. Above them, the fourth level of the pond ecosystem is the amphibians such as frogs and toads.
While it may seem unlikely that one little pond in the backyard can make much of a difference in the overall scheme of things, consider the hundreds of thousands of small backyard ponds, each with its own maintained pond ecosystem and you can see how collectively they can have a huge impact on the environment.
