CHANGES

We went to collect eggs in our tiny pond for our aquarium, to observe them as we do each year, but could not find any at all.  We usually see numerous egg masses throughout the clear water.

The area looks very different this spring. The water has always been clear for the past five years but it has changed.

This year it is covered in algae.

Why did this change come about?

Are there eggs still there but hidden by the algae?

 Is there less life in the tiny pond this year? 

  We learned about eutrophication this week in my Earth School, in our watershed study.  


Eutrophication ( yoo-tro-fi-kay-shun) is a process whereby water bodies receive excess nutrients that stimulate excessive plant growth. This enhanced plant growth, often called an algal bloom, reduces dissolved oxygen in the water when dead plant material decomposes and can cause other organisms to die.

Is this what happened to the tiny pond? 
Is it because of the heavy rains our area experiences this spring? The rains in which the path from the barn to the woodlands became a river !
Did that *river* carry excess nutrients (nitrogen) from the barn area to the tiny pond ?

The children and I have a real life dilemma to solve and to figure out what measures we can take to help the pond life.