 PHOTOGRAPH BY DEBORAH ROSE

hen is water not just water? When it comes from a pond! A jar full

probably familiar with some of the things at home in a pond, such as

re

ggling their way around their miniature world, pond water teems with u’

W of pond water is a jar full of life. From bacteria too tiny to see, to fat tadpoles wi Yo plants, , and other living things. A variety of life A pond is a very rich place—rich in nutrients that living things need to thrive. Water that runs into a pond when rain falls or when snow melts carries nitrogen, phosphorus, and other nutrients. Leaves and other plant parts that fall or wash in bring even more.

ducks, turtles, frogs, and fish. But most pond residents are smaller—some so small you can see them only with a microscope. These critters are an impor-

tant source of food for each other and for bigger living things around them.

MARY HOFF MARY

By

Jar

in a in Life those little critters you scoop up from a pond? up from scoop those little critters you are

hat

oung Naturalists W Y Five Pond If you’re lucky, your jar of pond water will contain members of all The Web Kingdoms five kingdoms of living things: • animals (such as of Life hen you scoop up a jar of and tadpoles) ike all living things, those in a Wpond water, you scoop up • plants (such as duckweed) Lpond can be put into categories living things too. Some might look according to how they get the • fungi (such as slime molds) GARY MESZAROS, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES like see-through tubes. Some might (such as , energy to stay alive. have 10 legs. Some might look like • protists paramecia, microscopic algae) Producers combine water, tiny, darting dots. Some might • • monerans (bacteria). carbon dioxide, and energy from move by wiggling a whiplike tail. A the sun to make sugars to pond creature’s body parts, shape, Many of these creatures are too nourish themselves and, and behavior help it survive in its small to see, but all play an eventually, other living things. watery world. important part in the cycle of life Plants and some protists and of a pond. monerans are producers. • Primary consumers eat producers. When you eat a up some water with the bucket. A diving beetle grabs a meal. carrot, you are a primary Looking Scoop through the weeds so you consumer. can catch creatures that live there • Secondary consumers at Life too. Take your water to a well- take a closer look. Do you see eat primary consumers. When lighted place where you can little living things moving you eat a hamburger, you are a o get a look at life in a pond, study it. around? Use a turkey baster to secondary consumer. Tfind a grownup who can help Look in your bucket. Then transfer the ones you want to • Decomposers break you stay safe DEBORAH ROSE see, along with water, into a jar. down the remnants of other around Look through the sides of the jar living things into molecules, water. Then to see what you can see. Pour the which can then be used once put on old water into a thin layer in a white again by other life forms. shoes or plastic container or in a glass pie boots. Take pan on a piece of white paper. your grown- Look down at the living things up and a with a magnifying glass. bucket to the If you have a microscope, look edge of a at a drop under the microscope. Mary Hoff, Stillwater, is a free- lance science writer and the produc- pond. Scoop Draw a picture of what you see. tion coordinator for the Volunteer.

 July–August 2002  lar vae are long and skinny. Big Things nymphs are One kind, a bloodworm, is found skinnier than at the bottom of a id you catch some big things in pond. It is red. Dyour bucket? If you were fast nymphs and have Another kind, a UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN EXTENSION and lucky, you might have tadpoles, three leafy gills or phantom midge frog eggs, snails, leeches, or even a on their rear , is see-through and has two baby fish! Here are some other end. They eat things big enough to see without a sets of two spots, one at the front magnifying glass: midge larvae and of its body and one at the back. water boatmen. Midge larvae eat and are true bugs with They are eaten . They are eaten by fish.

Backswimmers GARY MESZAROS, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES big eyes and long legs that look like is a plant with tiny, flat by fish. Duckweed ANTHONY MERCIECA, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES oars. They live just below the water leaves that float and roots that E.R. DEGGINGER, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES lar vae surface. They eat insects, snails, and hang down into the water. Duck- Fairy shrimp, or pond shrimp, eat detritus, bac- other small animals. Animals that eat weed captures energy from the sun have lots of legs and big eyes. They teria, and algae. backswimmers include fish, diving to grow. It is a valuable food for eat algae, detritus (bits of dead They make good beetles, and water scorpions. fish and ducks. things), and tiny animals. Fairy food for fish and shrimp can be hard to find in ducklings. Dragonfly and damselfly ponds with fish because fish nymphs are the young of flying gobble them up. Fairy shrimp eggs Diving beetle lar vae, known as insects with big wings. Dragonfly water tigers, hang from the nymphs are big and stubby. water surface and gobble up small creatures that swim by.

GARY MESZAROS, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES GARY MESZAROS, DEMBINSKY Adults eat tadpoles, fish,

ANTHONY MERCIECA, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES and can survive for 20 years after a larvae. When pond dries up. When water adult beetles returns, they hatch. dive, they carry GARY MESZAROS, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES a bubble of air to breathe.

 Minnesota Conservation Volunteer July–August 2002 E.R. DEGGINGER, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES Scuds are crustaceans—relatives Water striders “skate” on top of Copepods are tiny of crabs and water. These insects eat mosquito Little crustaceans that eat shrimp. They bacteria, algae, and have 14 legs Things detritus. Some and eat copepods eat

UNIVERSITY OF detritus. Fish, WISCONSIN EXTENSION hese creatures are tinier than mosquito larvae. ALEX RAKOSY, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES frogs, and birds eat scuds. Tthe ones you met on the previ- They are important ous pages. If you can see them at food for fish. One kind of is W ater boatmen are all, they might look like specks in called a cyclops. Like the Greek the water. true bugs that use mythological creature of the same

their long legs like GARY MESZAROS, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES name, the cyclops has one eye. oars to move through larvae and insects that get water. They eat algae trapped on the surface of the Daphnia belong to the group of and are eaten by water. Their long legs help spread crustaceans known as water fleas. water scorpions, out their weight so they can walk Each daphnia has an eye, a pointy dragonfly nymphs, on water instead of sinking. head, and two antennae that help it and fish. move about in jerky strides. Its 10 GARY MESZAROS, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES Whirligig beetles zip around in legs push detritus, algae, and tiny W ater sca venger beetles, like circles on the water. Their eyes animals toward its mouth. Daphnia diving beetles, carry air when can see above and below water are good food for small fish. they dive. Water scavenger E.R. DEGGINGER, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES beetle larvae have huge jaws Amoebas are protists, one-celled and eat other animals. organisms. They live at the bottom of a pond. The name comes from the Greek word amoibe, which means “change.” This blobby creature can readily change shape. It

GARY MESZAROS, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES eats by stretching its body around at the same time, as they search its food—bacteria, algae, and other for other insects to eat. tiny creatures. E.R. DEGGINGER, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES E.R. DEGGINGER, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES

 Minnesota Conservation Volunteer July–August 2002  One-celled are brownish Microscopic and shaped like tiny covered boxes. Their shells contain silica, a hard Things mineral. Most diatoms photosynthesize. That makes them fyou use a microscope, you might Ibe able to find some pond things that are too small to see otherwise. ALEX RAKOSY, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES Paramecia are oval-shaped protists Bacteria are extremely tiny covered with hairs, called cilia, that creatures. Many decompose dead propel them through water. Cilia also plants, animals, and other living E.R. DEGGINGER, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES

help the paramecium push food things, releasing nutrients that can ALEX RAKOSY, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES an important source of energy for the toward its mouthlike indentation. then be used again by other life When you see a desmid, you might pond ecosystem. Many paramecia form partnerships forms. Bacteria are food for mussels, think you’re seeing double. It has with algae, which capture energy daphnia, and other small creatures. A two parts that are mirror images of Dinoflagellates are named after from the sun to help them stay alive. single drop of pond water can hold each other. Desmids come in different their long tails, called flagella. When millions of bacteria. shapes. Sometimes they live in they wiggle their flagella they move W ater mites look like swimming colonies. through the orange or red dots. Under a water, slowly microscope you can see eight legs rotating. Most on their fat bodies. Like their of the time spider relatives, they eat other Desmids, diatoms, dinoflagellates tiny animals. dinoflagellates, euglenoids, reproduce by and all belong to Theya group are splitting into microscopic algae. called two. They are members of the protist king- eaten by dom. Most produce food for themselves, as plants do, from crustaceans sunlight, carbon dioxide, and other and water. animals. ALEX RAKOSY, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES ALEX RAKOSY, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES ROBERT MEGARD

 Minnesota Conservation Volunteer July–August 2002  ALEX RAKOSY, DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES Euglenoids have a red Web sites Riddle eyespot that helps them ould you like to learn more hat do you get when your puppy helps you with your pond study? about pond life in Minnesota sense light. W WTo answer the riddle, use the clues to fill in the blanks with the name of the and around the world? Check out correct pond creature. Then read the letters in the squares from top to bottom to These one-celled these web sites: answer the riddle: creatures move www.alienexplorer.com/ with the help of DESMID ecology/Ecology.html 1. flagella. Some I have two parts that are mirror images of each other. euglenoids www.dnr.state.wi.us/ 2. photosyn- org/caer/ce/eek/ I use my legs like oars to swim through the water. thesize. Others critter/watercritter/ critterindex.htm 3. eat food, as animals do. Some can My larvae have huge jaws. obtain energy both ways. www.nalms.org/educate/ pondgame/plgame.htm 4. I get my name because I travel in circles. Volvox are photosynthetic protists. www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/pond A colony forms what looks like a DEBORAH ROSE 5. I have three leafy gills on one end.

spherical, multicelled creature. The colony moves as its members beat DOGGY! SOGGY

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nswers A 10. My eggs can survive for 20 years.

 Minnesota Conservation Volunteer July–August 2002 