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Is Your Pond Ecosystem Vital For Success?

Updated September 2018

Pond ecosystems are miraculous.  As a matter of fact, a pond ecosystem consists of 4 habitats.

  1. the shore
  2. surface film
  3. open water
  4. bottom water

A healthy pond ecosystem is absolutely vital for ensuring the long-term success of your pond.

All of the types of fish and plant life contained within depend on this delicate balance.

All the way from algae to sharks and whales, everything in the oceans and by extension everything in your pond ecosystem has its role to play. And each creature plays an equally important and vital role in keeping the entire pond ecosystem healthy and efficient.

healthy pond ecosystem

What many people don’t realize about an ecosystem is how big an impact the creatures at the bottom of the food triangle have on the ones at the top.

 

Take one piece out of the pond ecosystem and the whole pond food chain will soon collapse and cause wide reaching devastation in your pond.

 

Unfortunately all too often pet owners simply fail to understand the importance of the links between the food pyramid. Predatory fish and high-ranking members of the food chain are often not the safest species in the waters at all. In fact they’re the most vulnerable. They may not have any other species out to attack them, but they have something even more fragile than that. They rely solely upon the existence of the creatures on the level below them in the chain. And they in turn rely on the species directly below them, and so on.

 

Watch as this teacher videotapes himself at a pond explaining to his students what a pond ecosystem is.  This is a great learning tool for children!

It’s not only fish and the plants within the pond that make up the components of its own mini ecosystem. Plants and animals that exist in the area around the pond also rely on the healthy existence of the pond for their survival as well.

 

Things such as plants which live on the banks of the pond, animals who use the pond as a water source and animals who may use the plants and banks around the pond to shelter from predators and poor weather. All of these along with so many more examples, are living proof that these kinds of mini ecosystems are a lot more delicate and complex than most people might at first think.

The thing to remember here is that each of the plants and/or animals within every mini ecosystem cannot possibly exist independently of all of the others in its chain.

 

And in turn, each chain cannot run independently of other food chains and ecosystems. Your pond ecosystem is vital to the success and prosperity of your pond and everything in and around it. You need to take great care to ensure that steps are taken to preserve this very complex and highly delicate balance of life.

 

Like any ecosystem, your pond ecosystem is an extremely delicate and a highly complex place. 

Recommended reading

We suggest you click here for resource to read more about the underwater ecosystem.

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