Forest ponds are home to a rich and important biodiversity such as amphibians, insects, odonates, and hydrophytic plants. Like all wetlands, they often disappear because the forest cover closes in, and the woody vegetation that grows along their banks eventually dries them out.
However, ponds are also essential for a multitude of other species like game, birds, and rodents that need them to drink, bathe, reproduce and feed.
Maintaining forest ponds with water all year round, at least during the breeding season of the species that depend on them, is essential for the balance of life in forests.
Forest ponds can be natural or man-made, and their water supply can vary from rainwater, run-off or groundwater, producing permanent or temporary ponds, which dry up in summer. They are partially sheltered from sunlight, and their aquatic vegetation is generally weak.
As a result, they have low concentrations of dissolved oxygen resulting from photosynthesis, which leads to an accumulation of organic matter at the bottom of the pond. As the process of degradation of organic matter is limited by the low concentrations of dissolved oxygen, which reduces the activity of decomposer micro-organisms, the pond ends up being filled in by the accumulation of organic matter and the establishment of pioneer forest plant species if no action is taken.
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