Domain of the Pond, Part 1: Web of Life

Explanation:

Click on various parts of the main image above to
view the food web components.

Ponds are amazing places to study, for many reasons. For one, they are microcosms of entire ecosystems. This week, we are exploring how the web of life -- the food web -- is so interconnected at one forest pond found in the remote Klamath Mountains of northwestern California.

The food web diagram presented this week is one I produced from a number of sources from my pond study: direct observation of birds, calling of owls at night, tracking the prints of large mammals along the pond edge, baited trapping of small mammals, sample plots of plants, capture of insects, and direct searches for, and hand-capture of, reptiles.

The spheres represent populations of organisms, and the lines show who eats what.

Doubtless, I missed some species and some linkages in this food web, and it could be drawn differently, but it is a good representation of the surprising complexity of a seemingly simple system.

Here is the pond represented in the food web.
It is one of many ponds I discovered, explored, studied, and named
on the Six Rivers National Forest in northwestern California.
I called this one "Bushwack Pond" because to find it I had to
crash through a mile or more of dense shrubs with no trail.

It also illustrates how plants and invertebrates typically form the basis of terrestrial food webs (the plants ultimately deriving their energy from the sun). And how the top predators are typically far fewer in number (of species as well as population sizes) than are herbivores and other species lower down in the trophic levels.

Next week, we will dive into the pond and solve a little mystery of water chemistry.

Reference:
Marcot, B. G. 1978. Flora and fauna of existing and potential slump pond sites in Six Rivers National Forest with recommendations for management. M.S. Thesis, Humboldt State University, Arcata CA.
Information:
I created the food web diagram with the program FoodWeb3D. (Other examples.)

EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week