Carpenter Lake Vernal Pond EarthCache
Carpenter Lake Vernal Pond
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Vernal ponds (also called ephemeral, temporary, or seasonal ponds, pools, or wetlands) are areas that do not contain water year-round.
Instead, these areas fill with water seasonally, usually with the onset of spring (vernal) or fall rains, and then dry up in the late summer. It is a vital and unique wetland system. Their size can range from a few square feet to several acres. A pond, which is too small and/or shallow, may dry too quickly for species, which rely on them to complete their life cycles while one that is too large, and/or deep may never dry completely.
Fall, Winter, Spring
The pools are essentially geologic depressions that are flooded during late fall, winter, and spring. The water, from melting snow and rain, collects in these depressions because the underlying soil is an impermeable layer called hardpan, (loam, clay or bedrock). There is no inlet for a continual fresh water supply. Throughout the wet winter months, vernal pools may collect enough water to fill and empty several times. During the wet season, insects, crustaceans, and plants take advantage of the abundant moisture for reproduction. Creatures that inhabit the pools are perpetuated via the production of cysts and/or eggs, and plants produce seeds that become buried in the muddy pool bottom. The mud protects the cysts, eggs, and seeds from the hot, dry summer. The unique environment of vernal ponds provides habitat for numerous rare plants and animals that are able to survive and thrive in these harsh conditions. A vernal pond, because of its periodic drying, does not support breeding populations of fish. Many organisms have evolved to use a temporary wetland which will dry but where they are not eaten by fish. These organisms are the "obligate" vernal pond species, so called because they must use a vernal pond for various parts of their life cycle. Many of these plants and animals spend the dry season as seeds, eggs, or cysts, and then grow and reproduce when the ponds are again filled with water. Only plants and animals that are adapted to this cycle of wetting and drying can survive in vernal pools over time. After the winter rains fill the pools, freshwater crustaceans, amphibians, and invertebrates will emerge. Along with the surge in animal life, the spring also brings the beautiful flowering plants for which vernal pools are famous.
Summer
By late summer, amphibians have dug deep into soils and have gone dormant waiting the next rainy season. The vernal Pools have completely dried out and most of the plant and animal species have either disappeared into the soils or set seed and died. In this phase vernal pools are really "banks" full of resting seeds, cysts, and eggs that can survive through summer, and even extended droughts, until the onset of the rains begin the cycle anew. Vernal pools and the life that depends on them could not exist if it were not for the long history of landscape formation and soil development that created the conditions in which vernal pools can exist. Earthquakes, floods, and volcanoes have all played an essential role in the formation of vernal pools. This vernal pond is located within the Carpenter Lake Nature Preserve. The soil is instrumental in the formation. The top layer of this pond consists of loam, consisting of sand, silt and clay, and is impervious to water. This keeps the water from being absorbed into the ground creating the vernal pond. As times goes on, only evaporation occurs so the pond will dry up. The second layer is claypan. It is comprised of clay minerals that when dry are hard. Again this layer is impervious to water. This clay layer develops when there is chemical erosion of silicate bearing rocks over a long period of time, normally due to carbonic acid. In addition some minerals can develop due to hydothermal conditions. Clay deposits may be formed in place as residual deposits, but thick deposits usually are formed as the result of a secondary sedimentary deposition process after they have been eroded and transported from their original location of formation.
To log this cache you must email (DarrylW4@MotorCityCacheMachine.com) or message (through the Geocaching.com Message Center) the answers to these questions. Any log without an email of the answers will be deleted.
- At the posted cords there is a sign, tell me how many different leaves are pictured.
- Tell me how you can identify if you are in a wetland if there is no water.
- Take a picture of yourself (or any part of yourself) with the vernal pond behind you and post it with your log (optional). Do not show the part of the sign that would give away the answers.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)