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what does coxs perspective add to this account of the antarctic swim

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By Lambert Strether of Corrente

When I read this sad story, of which more than below, I had a brow-hit moment that having posted on estuaries, rivers, streams, lakes, and swamps, I had never posted on ponds. So herewith. Getting the obligatory Monty Python reference out of the way:

The peasant Dennis undermines Arthur's legitimacy not only with reason ("no basis for a arrangement of authorities") merely by challenging the rhetoric of the Arthurian Legend itself, substituting the plebian pond ("foreign women lying in ponds") for the wellborn Lake ("The Lady of the Lake").

And indeed there's something subversive about ponds. Although their etymology comes from pound, enclosure, they seem ill-divers at the edges. They seem ephemeral. Though sometimes they are not. Beaver ponds and alligator holes enrich ecologies. Ponds from melting permafrost or glaciers signal (and accelerate) climactic change. Ponds resist nomenclature: The Wikipedia entry for Walden Pond begins: "Walden Pond is a lake…" but then goes on to refer to it as a pond (lower example "p") throughout. Ponds are strange things!

Regardless, I went looking for a nomenclature system for ponds, forth with a definition. Wikipedia defines a pond as "an area filled with h2o, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake" (and nosotros run across over again Dennis's subtle diminution of Arthur). Which strikes me as pretty vague, and Wikipedia goes on to admit that "the technical distinction betwixt a pond and a lake has non been universally standardized…. Accordingly, some organizations and researchers accept settled on technical definitions of swimming and lake that rely on size alone." (Of class, they can't agree on the size. Wikipedia simply presents technical definitions based on size; later I'll nowadays what looks to me like a amend one.) We can forget about artificial ponds; I'll get out ornamental ponds, pond pools, Crystal Lagoons®, pig lagoons, and h2o hazards on golf game courses for some other time.

Small size, I recollect, leads people to think of "this pond" as "my swimming." I've never seen so many photos of any torso of water as I saw when collecting textile for this post. Many are beautiful, since nearly ponds are still water[1], their unruffled surfaces reflect sky, trees, clouds:

And this one:

"The pond" is my pond:

Of course, not all ponds are placid, or that small:

Footstep Wikipedia, there are at least two classification systems for ponds that are not size-driven. The first comes from The Nature Conservancy, "A Lake and Pond Nomenclature System for the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States" (PDF). This was a 2014 effort to blueprint a classification system that would cover all the lakes and ponds fo the Northeast. Hither is the key slide:

Initially, I was tempted to allocate this classification system as a failure, simply because there were a lot of dissimilar agencies and stakeholders round the table. I've been to meetings like that, and I saw the complexity (33 pond types? Really) as a resolution of institutional disharmonize. (And I'm also extremely suspicious of classification systems that have a bucket called "Miscellaneous," considering the lazy or ignorant will throw as well much in that bucket. So, "Unclassifiable"? Actually?) But on further consideration, I'm non sure I'thou correct; nature is complex, and the Northeast is big. Plus the projects. maps are beautiful.

Yet, this classification system is more congenial to me, because it reminds me of the ponds on the plains of my youth in the Midwest. From United States Department of The Interior Fish And Wild fauna Service, Bureau Of Sport Fisheries And Wildlife, "Classification of Natural Ponds And Lakes in the Glaciated Prairie Region" (1971):

Here is the method used to pattern the classification, from pp 7-8:

Seven major classes of wetland in natural basin are recognized on the ground of ecological differentiation. Each class is distinguished by the vegetational zone occurring in the central or deeper part and occupying v per cent or more than of the total wetland surface area existence classified.

The Nature Conservancy taxonomy considers temperature, trophic state, alkalinity, and depth. Different the Fish and Wild fauna taxonomy, it does not consider vegetation. That seems odd. If one wishes the consider the pond every bit an ecological being, surely the vegetation information technology contains and that surrounds it should be office of the equation? In any example, choosing a swimming classification organisation is in a higher place my paygrade; but at least we know that the problem is more interesting than Wikipedia makes out.

Ponds may also be classified by life-cycle stages (and their lives tends to end). From the Missouri Botanical Garden, which also provides a brutally simple definition of the term:

A geological event, such every bit a glacier or sink hole, can create a swimming. Ponds are nothing more shallow holes where water collects[2]. Yet, if left alone, ponds volition fill in with dirt and debris until they become land.

More formally, from artificial pond-marker Kasko, "Swimming & Lake Life Bike":

Ponds or lakes are divided into 3 categories; they are either Oligotrophic, Mesotrophic, or Eutrophic stages of their life (listed youngest to oldest).

Oligotrophic bodies of water are considered new or young ponds or lakes in the overall scheme of things. Oligotrophic ponds and lakes have a depression concentration of nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus. They typically have steep sloping shorelines and are deep and articulate. The lesser of the swimming or lake is typically sand, gravel, or stone.

When Thoreau describes Walden Pond — supposing information technology to be a pond — he is describing an oligotrophic pond:

The scenery of Walden is on a humble scale, and, though very beautiful, does non approach to grandeur, nor can it much concern one who has not long frequented it or lived by its shore; yet this pond is so remarkable for its depth and purity as to merit a particular clarification. It is a clear and deep green well… The surrounding hills rise abruptly from the water to the tiptop of forty to eighty feet… Walden is bluish at one time and light-green at another, even from the same point of view. Lying between the earth and the heavens, it partakes of the color of both. Viewed from a hill-meridian it reflects the color of the sky; simply near at hand it is of a xanthous tint side by side the shore where you tin can see the sand, and so a light light-green, which gradually deepens to a uniform nighttime green in the body of the pond. In some lights, viewed even from a hill-acme, it is of a vivid light-green adjacent the shore.

Back to Kasko:

Mesotrophic bodies of h2o are considered middle aged, geologically. Mesotrophic lakes fall in the middle, between oligotrophic and eutrophic lakes. They accept more nutrients and, therefore, more institute and algae growth than oligotrophic lakes and pond, but less than eutrophic. As a pond or lake ages from oligotrophic to mesotrophic, the sides of the pond begin to gradient less and the bottom of the pond begins to fill in with organic material. The substrate that was once stone, sand, or gravel, now consists of mud on top of the rocks.

Eutrophic bodies of water are considered onetime or dying ponds or lakes. Eutrophic lakes and ponds are extremely well nourished with nitrogen and phosphorus, leading to an affluence of aquatic plant growth. As the pond or lake continues to age, the sides go on to flatten out and what were once steep sides is now gently sloping. The bottom of the pond is now filled with organic sediment and mud. The overall depth of the swimming or lake is continually decreasing and the clarity continues to decrease. As the pond or lake fills in and the weeds grow larger, the full open water area shrinks as well. If left alone, the pond or lake will eventually fill in completely, and go a swamp or wetland at best.

Of course, these stages are non inevitable; they are afflicted by the pond's ecology, in particular megafauna. From the Guardian, "Blasts from the past: how ice age ponds are coming back to life":

"If you exit a swimming it volition naturally, in most cases, silt upward and turn into a bog or a woodland," says Dave Hutton, water ice age ponds projection officer at Herefordshire Wild fauna Trust. "Without those natural processes, like aurochs and large mammals traipsing effectually and keeping them open, ponds and their wild fauna tend to disappear. Nosotros're interim like beavers and other large herbivores and keeping them open."

And aurochs bring me to the poor elephants whose fate induced me to write this postal service. From Smithsonian, "Toxic Algae Caused Mysterious Widespread Deaths of 330 Elephants in Botswana":

For months, what killed the more than than 300 elephants between belatedly Apr and June was a mystery, with many wondering if poachers were somehow involved or if something sinister might be at play. Now, officials say the pachyderms were laid depression by toxic blueish-green algae that had polluted their drinking h2o, reports BBC News.

Botswana is abode to the world's largest population of elephants—roughly 130,000 and ascension—making the country a premier destination for wildlife tourism, report Mqondisi Dube and Max Bearak for the Washington Post.

The blooms of blueish-green algae, which is actually not a true algae but a blazon of cyanobacteria, took hold in seasonal pools of water used by elephants, says Cyril Taolo, Botswana'south interim managing director of the Department of Wild fauna and National Parks. The deaths came to a halt once these ephemeral ponds dried upwards, reports Sello Motseta of the Associated Press.

In other words, the ponds had reached the Eutrophic stage, and the blueish-green algae produced by eutrophication killed the elephants.

From aurochs and elephants, who come to ponds to drink, nosotros turn to megafauna that build ponds[3]. Starting time, beavers. On the bright side, Smoky the Beaver prevents forest fires (or at least ameliorates their effects). From Emily Fairfax, Beavers and Wildfire:

TL;DR: h2o from beaver ponds is spread around the landscape in niggling channels the beavers dig. The pond water slowly seeps into the soil, keeping it wet and plants green. When wildfires come through, the beaver wetlands are too wet to burn down. Can't start a bivouac with soggy sticks. Beavers = Firefighters

Fairfax presents these aerial photographs:

The caption:

Superlative panel photograph from California Manter Fire Burned Surface area Emergency Response (BAER ) Team. Bottom panels from Google World satellite imagery of Buzzard Complex burn in Oregon.

That'due south the bright side. On the nighttime, or at least a dissimilar side, beavers are accelerating permafrost melt. From WBUR, "The Unusual Connection Between Beavers, Permafrost And Climate change":

Over the terminal xx to l years, satellite imagery has shown beavers moving from the boreal forest to build ponds in the Arctic tundra…. The influx of beavers edifice ponds is starting to thaw the permafrost — state that's been frozen for at least two years but oftentimes hundreds or thousands of years — nether the footing…. "Evolution has taught beavers to exist almost perfect hydrologic engineers," [Academy of Alaska Fairbanks researcher Ken Tape] says. "They know where to put their dams. They are very efficient, and they're incredibly industrious."…. Permafrost makes the beavers moving up into the tundra a global business organisation. When beavers flood the tundra to make ponds, the h2o transfers heat to the ground and starts thawing the permafrost, releasing the greenhouse gases stored inside, he says…. "[Beavers are] actually creating these focal points or oases on the landscape for boreal species to proceeds a foothold in the Chill," Tape says.

I wonder if the climate models include the effects of beavers building ponds, and what the effects are. (Since they tend to complexify the ecology, I would speculate they are good.)

Our second pond-building megafauna is the alligator (amazingly enough). From Wired — this article really is fun, I now stan for gators — "The Creature Feature: 10 Fun Facts About the American Alligator":

v. Alligators are ecosystem engineers. Alligators play an important role in their wetland ecosystems past creating small ponds known as alligator holes. Alligator holes retain water during the dry out season and provide habitats for other animals.

Here is a gator hole (Anita Gould):

(It really does seem to be hard to take a picture of a swimming that'due south not cute.) In Defense of Plants describes how and why alligators build their holes, and the habitats they create in "Alligators Increase Plant Diversity":

[Alligator] activity level changes during the dry season when water is in brusk supply. Gators don't sit down dorsum and permit nature have its grade. They spring into action and create their ain aquatic refuges.

Equally the surrounding landscape begins to dry, gators will excavate holes or pits in the soggy ground chosen gator holes. These holes hold onto water when most of the surrounding mural isn't. … When a gator excavates a gator hole, it creates variation in both hydrology and soil conditions.

Soils that accept built upward over time are lifted out of the hole and piled into mounds. Mounded soils are not merely rich in nutrients, they as well dry out at unlike rates, creating a gradient in h2o availability. Plants that normally can't germinate and grow in saturated soils find suitable spots to live up on the soil mounds while emergent aquatic vegetation fills in along the parameter. Plants that commonly adopt to abound in deeper h2o tin can besides constitute inside the gator hole itself. In the midst of adequately compatible marsh vegetation, a gator pigsty quickly becomes a hotbed of institute diversity. The differences in vegetation tin can be so stark compared to the surrounding landscape that some scientists can actually map gator holes using aerial scans simply by measuring the differences in infrared radiation given off past the leaves of all the dissimilar plants that establish around them.

Of course, all of that plant diversity has a huge result on other organisms also. Gator holes become important areas for various reptiles, amphibians, birds, and then much more. The paths that alligators accept to and from their holes fifty-fifty act similar fire breaks, irresolute the style fire moves through the landscape, which only increases the heterogeneity of the immediate expanse. Fish, though occasionally eaten, greatly benefit from the stability of h2o levels within a gator pigsty. All in all, gator holes are extremely of import habitats.

Finally, melt ponds may advance, or at least affect, climate change in both Arctic permafrost and the Antarctic ice sail. First, the arctic. From Phys.org, "Permafrost in the Arctic can thaw faster than presumed":

Air temperatures are increasing in high latitudes and in loftier mountain areas dominated by permafrost in the ground…. [One] consequence is that ice layers in the ground get-go to cook, so that the ground subsides and depressions with ponds and lakes course. This mural change [is] known every bit "thermokarst." … Among scientists, the general assumption is that thermokarst processes locally lead to faster thawing of permafrost. "However, with our model, we have also considered stabilizing processes that can slow down thawing. Nosotros were amazed that under a moderate warming scenario, thermokarst processes can even limit the thawing of permafrost", [says January Nitzbon from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany]. Under a stronger warming scenario, notwithstanding, self-reinforcing processes dominated, which would drastically change these landscapes due to accelerated permafrost thaw.

Here's a photo of thermokarst:

And now the Antartic. From The Chat, "Antarctica now has more than 65,000 'meltwater lakes' equally summer water ice melts." They call them lakes, but I'm gonna think of them as ponds:

Scientists already knew that lakes course on the Antarctic ice sheet….[South]cientists are particularly interested in these lakes because they may contribute to destabilising the ice shelves and water ice sheet in hereafter.

Like a sponge, the more that ice shelves become saturated with meltwater, the less they are able to absorb, meaning more h2o pools on their surfaces equally lakes. More surface lakes mean a greater likelihood that water will drain out, fill crevasses and potentially trigger flexing and fracturing. If this were to occur, other ice shelves around Antarctica may first to disintegrate like Larsen B. Glaciers with floating ice tongues protruding into the ocean may also be vulnerable.

* * *

And then concludes another perambulation through the biosphere, this ane truly mind-angle for me, since I had not thought that "shallow holes where h2o collects" could deliver and so many of what Davos Man would call ecosystem services, ka-ching. Having started with Monty Python, I volition terminate with Pink Floyd:

Grantchester Meadows once included a fen and a marsh, hence we may call back of them as a Eutrophic, filled-in pond.

NOTES

[one] Freshwater ecosystems are generally divided into ii categories: lotic (running water, as rivers, streams, creeks, etc.) and lentic (still water, as ponds, lakes, marshes, bogs, etc.).

[two] "Null more." Sounds like the author has been fighting through some of the same source textile I've been.

[iii] I have not included feral hog wallows. I practise non know whether they are beneficial or not. I doubtable not.

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Source: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/09/ponds-beaver-ponds-arctic-and-antarctic-ponds-and-walden-pond.html

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