We understand that pond restoration has a dramatic effect on the species richness and biodiversity of farmland ponds and that our research has shown this to be true for aquatic plants, amphibians, fish and insects.
However, perhaps it may be possible to measure these changes in diversity by simply listening to the sounds of a pond?
PhD student, Jack Greenhalgh, is exploring just that.
Bioacoustics (the study of sounds produced by animals) has been used in ecosystems such as woodlands, coral reefs and tropical rainforests to observe the acoustic diversity emitted by the fauna present. However, freshwater ecosystems have been largely overlooked in spite of their of accessibility.
Jack’s research is therefore exploring the unknown underwater soundscapes of ponds before and after restoration. His initial research indicates that restored ponds are a cacophony of underwater life, full of biological information waiting to be deciphered.
You can find out more about Jack’s research at the University of Bristol on his webpage.
During UCL Pond Restoration Week in September, we were thrilled to be joined by the Associated Press who followed us through a day’s work, and are using the footage to promote the importance of wetlands at a global scale.
The Associated Press write that most 90% of the world’s wetlands disappeared over the past three centuries, according to the Ramsar Convention, an organization formed around a 1971 treaty to protect wetlands. The loss rate has accelerated since the 1970s, with wetlands now disappearing three times faster than the world’s forests, the group says.
Every type of naturally occurring wetland has suffered — from ponds, freshwater swamps and coastal marshes, to fens, bogs and other peatlands.
The consequences can be profound:
* Roughly 5,000 wetland-dependent species threatened with extinction, including mammals, birds and amphibians, according to Ramsar.
* Fewer natural storage areas to hold back torrential rains means more severe floods in many parts of the world, including the U.S. heartland, as seen this summer.
* Draining wetlands, such as in Indonesia to make way for palm oil plantations, can release huge amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, a major contributor to climate change.
Whilst the UCL Pond Restoration Research Group and NPP volunteers are working on Pond 10 of the #BIG50 project today, we will be being supported by one intrepid adventurer who is raising money for our project and raising awareness of the huge number of ponds in the Norfolk countryside.
Below, Dr Polly Ashford, explains why she is taking on this feat of cycling over 100 miles and visiting over 50 ponds in one day…
What’s a farm pond and why should I care?
Norfolk’s ponds were originally dug as clay or marl (lime) pits, and there are thousands of them. Unfortunately many have become overgrown or filled in. Healthy farm ponds are fantastic for biodiversity, supporting a range of species from aquatic plants and invertebrates to pollinators and farmland birds.
What you are raising cash for?
Each pond takes about a day to restore (removing vegetation, sediment etc, and surveying). Much of this work is carried out by volunteers and students. I’d encourage people to support the project in any way possible, but specifically for this year’s #Big50 restoration, I’d like to raise a bit of cash to pay for special chainsaw fuel, which contains less harmful hydrocarbons than regular petrol. The exhaust fumes are much cleaner so the health risks are dramatically reduced, and it is more environmentally friendly. I’ve also got a vested interest here, as my partner Andy will be doing a lot of chainsawing!
How much is Polly going to suffer for my cash?
I will be cycling a route around Norfolk that takes in a minimum of 50 ponds in one day, which will mean approximately 100 miles. I’ll stop at each pond to photograph it as proof (@DrPollyAshford on Twitter), and to show the different sizes/shapes/states of Norfolk’s ponds. I will be very surprised if I’m on the bike for less than 12 hours, and I’ve never cycled this far in one go before, so yes, suffering is guaranteed!
Please encourage Polly not to regret this madness by pledging a bit of money on her Just Giving page.
The BIG 50 UCL pond week commenced today with scrub clearnence at a mammoth pond in Hindolveston, Norfolk. After a heavy downpour to start the day, a huge team of enthusiastic UCL staff and students, old and new, joined long-time local supporters of the Norfolk Ponds Project to clear the vegetation around Grasshopper Pond: a huge horseshoe shaped pond in the Norfolk farmland.
After an introduction and H & S tool talk, the chainsaw team began removing the willow that has encroached the pond over the years, uncovering grasshoppers, frogs and shieldbugs along the way!
After day one the trees and scrub are removed from most of the pond basin and perimeter and we are keen for the digger to join us tomorrow!
In 2016, the UCL Pond Restoration week was held at Heydon, North Norfolk. We had the opportunity to work on some fantastic ponds in gorgeous weather! We produced a short video of our time-lapse footage of one of the restorations and we include it here so that you can see what it is like to volunteer on a pond restoration.
In year one post-restoration, the pond begins to colonise in late summer. By year two there are submerged macrophytes across the bottom of the pond and emergent plants have recolonised on the shallowest slope. The photo below was not taken from the same angle but you can spot the curved branch of the same tree in both photos!
Our Norfolk Ponds Project partnership were all truly delighted to have won the CIEEM NGO Impact Award 2019. The Awards were held in the Merchant Taylor’s Hall in the City of London on the 27th June and NPP Secretary, Helen Greaves, was honoured to collect the award on behalf of the NPP.
This recognition has reaffirmed our believe that our strength lies in our partnership working and we hope that the “BIG 50” project will not only demonstrate that but also be the start of bigger and better things to come.
On the left, the pond before digging; on the right, the pond two years later.
Prior to restoration in 2014, Beckett’s Farm pond was so heavily overgrown it was hard to even get inside to survey.
Once inside, only a few dark inches of water remained. The willow was removed to reduce the amount of water lost through evapotraspiration and two years on the pond was buzzing with dragonflies and damselflies.