April 24th, 2016
I headed out to the Huron Natural Area this week with my co-teacher to prepare our classroom for our spring grade 2 and 3 programs. We walked our nature trail circuit and observed several seasonal changes taking place.
When we arrived we noticed that the city of Kitchener is organizing a family Earth Day event for Saturday April 30th. I have added the event information at the end of this post if you are still looking for a way to celebrate Earth Day 2016.
At the Board of Education Pond we were pleased to see a Caspian tern circling in search of fish.
As we watched the tern circling, we where lucky enough to see it dive for a fish. What a fortunate tern of events!
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On the topic of fish, we noticed an introduced species in the pond. It looks like someone dumped their Koi fish into the Huron Natural Area’s Board of Education Pond. It is never a good idea to let a pet or domesticated animal loose in the wild. Often the animal will not survive due to predation or winter conditions. However, some domesticated species can propagate and become invasive species. When a foreign species is introduced to an ecosystem, native wild species often have to compete for the same limited resources. The introduced species may have some adaptive advantage or may be able to escape predation. If the invasive species continues to outcompete the native population, local wild animals may not be able to survive.
This spring I will be watching closely to see if more than one Koi is living in the pond.
Introduced Koi is not the only thing the fish in our pond have to worry about. Hundreds of sunfish have been killed off this spring, possibly from unseasonable weather leading to a change water conditions. A probable culprit is an algae bloom happening in our pond. The water itself is much greener than last spring, and many patches of algae can be seen floating on the surface.
An algae bloom happens when nitrogen-rich fertilizer runs off of agricultural land into streams and rivers. When all of these extra nutrients wash into the watershed, algae can grow out of control, de-oxygenating the water. Without sufficient oxygen in the water, many native species won’t survive and the result is a ‘dead zone’. Perhaps the most famous dead zone is in the Gulf of Mexico near the outflow of the Mississippi River.
Wetlands are an important part of the solution to these dead zones. Wetlands act like sponges, soaking up run-off and filtering out pollutants. Preserving the wetlands in Huron Natural Area ensures that water downstream will be cleaner. Hopefully the fish will be healthier downstream too.
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The shallow water and unseasonably sunny weather have probably contributed to the algae growth. While the dead fish are not a pretty sight to us, to some creatures they are downright appealing. The energy in these fish bodies will be used by scavengers and decomposers. In a way, the fish will be recycled by other animals, fungi and bacteria. As decomposers break down the fish, the some of the nutrients go back to the soil, where they will be used by plants such as this bloodroot.
Visiting students will have the chance to spot other spring blossoms such as Trillium and Coltsfoot. Students often mistake the yellow Coltsfoot flowers for Dandelion blossoms. Can you spot the differences?
We will be welcoming our first classes the season tomorrow. We look forward to sharing more of our highlights with you.
Also, don’t forget to check out the April 30th family event info below:
