Ponds and Small Lakes: Microorganisms and Freshwater Ecology

226 Pages·2017·13.076 MB·English

by  Brian Moss

Naturalists’ Handbooks 32
Ponds and
small lakes
BRIAN MOSS
Pelagic Publishing
www.pelagicpublishing.com
Published by Pelagic Publishing
www.pelagicpublishing.com
PO Box 725, Exeter, EX1 9QU, UK
Ponds and small lakes
Naturalists’ Handbooks 32
Series Editor
William D.J. Kirk
ISBN 978-1-78427-135-0 (Pbk)
ISBN 978-1-78427-136-7 (ePub)
ISBN 978-1-78427-137-4 (Mobi)
ISBN 978-1-78427-138-1 (PDF)
Text © Pelagic Publishing 2017
Brian Moss asserts his moral right to be identified as the
author of this work.
All rights reserved. Apart from short excerpts for use in
research or for reviews, no part of this document may
be printed or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, now known or
hereafter invented or otherwise without prior permission
from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library
Cover
Top: Bystock Pools nature reserve, Devon. Bottom, left to
right: SEM photographs by D.N. Furness, a ciliate (Coleps
species), a diatom, an amoeba; and by Per Harald Olsen/
NTNU (CC BY 2.0), Daphnia magna.
Contents
Editor’s preface ...................................................................................... v
Preface....................................................................................................vi
About the author..................................................................................vii
About Naturalists’ Handbooks............................................................viii
1  Ponds............................................ 1
2  Living in freshwater.............................. 12
3  The littoral ...................................... 25
Key A Traditional key to kingdoms of organisms ..................................36
Key B Contemporary key to kingdoms of organisms ..............................38
Key C Pragmatic key to groups of microorganisms ..............................43
Key D Algae visible, at least en masse, to the naked eye ......................48
Key E Periphyton, both attached to surfaces and free living ..................54
Key F Major orders of free-living protozoa ............................................65
Key G Freshwater invertebrate groups (and a few genera) most com-
monly encountered ................................................................................80
4  Plankton ........................................ 84
Key H Common phytoplankton genera in ponds in Britain and Ireland 93
5  Catchments, nutrients and organic matter.......... 107
6  The ecological development of ponds and lakes .... 126
7  Food webs and structures in ponds................ 148
8  Problems with ponds and small lakes ............. 164
9  Ponds and the future ............................ 184
10  Bibliography and further information ............. 197
Index..................................................................................................206

Editor’s preface
Nearly everyone has some kind of pond or small lake
nearby. It could be a village pond or a pond in a garden,
park or nature reserve. They are all around us, but there is
still much that we do not understand about them.
Ponds and small lakes support an extremely rich biodi-
versity of fascinating organisms. Many people have tried
pond-dipping and encountered a few unfamiliar creatures,
such as dragonfly nymphs and caddisfly larvae. However,
there is a far richer world of microscopic organisms, such
as diatoms, desmids and rotifers, which is revealed in this
book. Anyone with access to a microscope can open up this
hidden dimension. Identification keys are provided so that
readers can identify, explore and study this microscopic
world. There are also many suggestions of ways in which
readers can then make original contributions to our
knowledge and understanding of pond ecology. It is not
even necessary to have access to a pond to be able to study
them because artificial ponds that will quickly develop
communities of microorganisms can be created easily from
jam jars or plastic buckets filled with rainwater.
The book not only explores the fascinating world of
the creatures within ponds and their interactions, but also
explains the many ways in which ponds are important in
human affairs. Ponds are being lost around the world, but
they are a key part of a system that maintains our climate. In
the face of climate change, it has never been more important
to understand the ecology of ponds.
Sadly, Brian Moss, the author, was diagnosed with
terminal cancer towards the end of writing the book.
Despite this, he continued to work hard on it, knowing
his time was limited. Only the acknowledgements were
not completed. He passed away in May 2016, before the
book was published. Brian’s interest, enthusiasm and
commitment to ponds live on in this book. I am confident
that this book will enable more people to appreciate and
investigate these fascinating and important habitats.
William D.J. Kirk
July 2016
Preface
Why study a pond?
‘It’s fun’ says A, the enthusiastic naturalist..
‘It’s in the syllabus’, snaps B, the disillusioned teacher..
‘Well’, says C, the calculating careerist, ‘I believe it might
throw light on a problem which interests X and Y.. They are two
coming men, and if I can catch their eye I shall have friends at
court in a few years’ time when I am looking for a top post’..
‘A pond presents a limited environment without a continual
interchange of population with neighbouring biotopes and is,
therefore, suitable for the study of principles,’ enunciates D, the
serious ecologist..
‘World starvation is a real threat.. In many tropical lands an
important amount of protein is raised in ponds.. We should study
production in ponds wherever we can’ explains E, the scientist
with a social conscience..
We can ignore B and C; A,D and E merit our attention.
The first paragraph of Ponds and Lakes by T.T. Macan,
published by Allen and Unwin in 1973.
Brian Moss
April 2016
About the author
Getting wet and muddy was a childhood trait that Brian
Moss never quite grew out of. His research and teaching
embraced freshwaters on five continents over fifty years,
a range of approaches from field survey to laboratory and
whole-lake experiments and a gamut of sites from lakes
in Malawi, Tanzania and Michigan, to thermal streams
in Iceland, the Norfolk Broads, the North-West Midland
Meres and temperature-controlled ponds at the University
of Liverpool’s Botanic Gardens. When he retired from
Liverpool as Professor of Botany in 2008 he was spending
at least as much time with invertebrates and fish as with
plants and algae.
His work has been widely published, with a textbook,
The Ecology of Freshwaters, soon to appear in its fifth edition,
books in the New Naturalist series on The Broads and Loughs
and Lochs, and a manual on lake restoration. He has been
President of the International Society for Limnology and
Vice-President of the British Ecological Society.
He was awarded the Institute of Ecology and Envi-
ronmental Management’s annual medal for his life’s work
and leadership in shallow-lake research in 2010, and the
Ecology Institute’s ‘Excellence in Ecology’ prize in 2009.
This entailed the writing of a book, Liberation Ecology, which
interprets ecology for the general public through the media
of the fine arts. The book won the Marsh Prize, in 2013, for
the best ecology book published in the previous year. Brian
loved teaching, playing the double bass (not very well),
writing satirical doggerel, often directed at officialdom,
and was exercised daily by a large dog.
About Naturalists’ Handbooks
Naturalists’ Handbooks encourage and enable those interested
in natural history to undertake field study, make accurate
identifications and make original contributions to research.
A typical reader may be studying natural history at
sixth-form or undergraduate level, carrying out species/
habitat surveys as an ecological consultant, undertaking
academic research or just developing a deeper understand-
ing of natural history.
History of the Naturalists’ Handbooks series
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