- Plants and snails are important components of a pond's ecosystem.snail image by Henryk Olszewski from Fotolia.com
Ponds provide a quiet underwater world for a variety of life, including aquatic plants and snails. Because many ponds are self-contained, each forms its own independent ecosystem where plants feed, shelter and provide oxygen for the snails and fish, and snails control algae growth and act as a food source for larger organisms. - Lymnaea stagnalis, the great pond snail, is found throughout Europe and North America. The snail feeds on both plant and animal matter, including live prey such as newts, small fish and other pond snails. Egg masses measuring 2 inches in length and consisting of up to 120 eggs announce the snail's presence. They usually attach to weeds and other pond structures. The size the snail reaches depends on the size of the pond: Bigger ponds generate bigger snails. Although the great pond snail floats to the surface to take in oxygen, it is also capable of absorbing oxygen from the water through its skin.
- Floating hearts or Nymphoides are a genus of pond plant named for the shape of their leaves. The leaves are small, resembling water lilies, with small white or yellow flowers. The plants float on top of the water with a root extending to the bottom of the pond. The leaves of floating hearts have prominent leaf veins, may be pebbled underneath and develop thick clusters of roots below their flower stalks. Root clusters detach from the stem and drift to new locations in the pond, where they sink to the bottom and develop into new plants. One prominent species is known as the banana lily because the roots at the base of the plant resemble a banana.
- The banded mystery snail, Viviparus georgianus, is a North American native, found primarily in the southeastern United States but ranging as far north as the Great Lakes and New England. The banded mystery snail has an elongated, yellow-green shell that can reach almost 2 inches in height. The snail spends warm weather in shallow waters near the shore, where it mates and where most of its growth occurs, and it migrates into the deeper center of the pond during the winter. Banded mystery snails feed on algae growing in the mud and silt at the bottom of the pond, a practice that also exposes them to pollutants. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, these snails can serve as bioindicators of pollution problems in ponds.
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