January 3, 2010 - Iced In

Welcome to the Nature Notebook.

When ice covers our ponds and lakes you might think that underwater activity comes to a crashing halt. And well it should. Ice and snow cover reduce light levels, slowing plant growth and oxygen to a standstill. The ice barrier also blocks atmospheric oxygen from mixing at the water’s surface. Fortunately, cold water slows metabolic rates, which reduces oxygen demand. Yet even in these harsh conditions, tadpoles and a few adult frogs swim slowly in search of food. Dragonfly and other aquatic insect larvae continue to eat and grow slowly during the winter. Hunters still hunt and are hunted in turn by others. Small fish eat tadpoles and insects and are eaten by larger fish. Turtles, though, sit out the winter, buried in the mud at the bottom of the pond. So when a pond freezes life goes on below the ice.

This is PPL's naturalist, Jon Beam, with the Nature Notebook for WVIA.