Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Quarry Contest 2010

The year prior the offsetting watershed (old Quarry) was reclaimed by planting grass and fertilizing. It washed into your quarry and the sago took off. Maybe it was an adjoining hay or crop field.

Such creative minds!

I'll give you some information that you couldn't know unless you lived here...

2006 was the final year of a 5 year drought.

Looking at that picture, the water is very clear, but that isn't Sago in the picture, now, is it? I believe that the pond saw an influx of nutrients, coupled with better water clarity, which combined to produce the increased Sago growth. The growth didn't happpen the following year due to a reduction in available nutrients, reduction in water clarity, or a combination of both. Probably due to the amount of water flowing thru the pond.

Okay, stealing some inspiration from Esshup's thoughts, I'm going to say that was the year that the dam, or roadway, or whatever it was that was at the end of the small arm, was removed. In one of the first pictures that was posted of this lake, there was an earthen structure that cross from from the big house at the point of the lake over to the other side, but in the pics that you ultimately posted here, that dam/structure was removed. That work may have caused the influx of nutrients, etc. through the debris that ended up in the lake and from the narrow end of the lake being essentially emptied into the bigger section of the lake. I'm speculating that the narrow end had a somewhat different chemistry to it than the big "side" of the lake, due to it being a smaller body of water, having less ability to exchange its contents due to being dammed up, and that it was more fertile and perhaps supported a better plankton bloom since it was smaller and more susceptible to environmental impacts. When that was dumped into the big part of the lake, it had the effect that Esshup mentioned in changing the chemistry enough that it maybe caused an effective bloom and ultimately blocked out some of the sunlight and caused a reduction/elimination of the pondweed.

Rambling, I know, but I'm trying to think out loud and get some points, baby!

Correct. That's not sago. In that picture there is a light algae bloom, with the groundwater coming in as a truer blue.

Here's where my pond ignorance kicks in and kicks my butt! Assuming the repost of Question #7 is to suggest none of us have hit it yet, how about the emergence of whatever that is in the picture snuffing out the growth of the Sago PW? Maybe it's a type of vegetation that does even better in nice clear water than does Sago, and it simply took over, dominated the growing conditions for Sago, and basically did a natural job of eliminating it? I like this thinking out loud bit and the exercise of guessing at the answers, but kills me to wait to see if I'm even on the right track!

BTW, the photo is of sago pondweed.

I'm confused, then. Was your reply below not referring to the embedded pic that started question 7?



My ignorance of aquatic vegetation has got me hamstrung on this question! Crap! The overheat warning light in my brain just went into overdrive!

Ahh. I see. I was saying that in the satellite picture it was not sago, but in the underwater picture, that IS sago. Does that make better sense?

Might you be suggesting, then, that the return of more normal water levels submerged the established Sago plants to a depth that was too deep for it to really proliferate? I'll keep reaching for straws here until the question is closed or until you stop offering hints or you tell me I've exhausted my right to participate on this question!

Often times after an extended drought, a lot of nutrients build up as there is no rain to wash them away. When the rains finally come, they flood a ton of nutrients into a water system. This can cause negative affects... In your quarry pond this caused an excessive growth of sago pondweed... In the Chesapeake Bay it causes excessive blooms and then subsequent die offs of algae which then cause wide spread fish kills in the summer.

Perfectly clear now!

Keep participating. I'll keep throwing out clues.

What happens to a quarry during a drought? Keep your answer very, very simple. Five words or less. Not an official question...but a clue.

The water level drops. So, from that assumption, I'm also going to venture a guess that the water warms more easily and perhaps with warming, the overall conditions change and create better growing circumstances for some plants, such as Sago. Then, when the drought ends, more water is present, temps are more moderated, and ideal conditions for that species no longer exist.

At some point, I suspect I'm going to get a JHAP 7/8 point score awarded to me on this question as a mercy killing so I'll stop with all this nonsense!

Well, the water level drops... Since you mentioned the pond is only a known max depth of 12', a drop of just a couple feet could open up a substantially larger area of pond bottom to sago pondweed growth that otherwise would have been too deep for the plant to grow in...

Good.

Now what else happens to a body of water when it doesn't rain for five years? Three words or less. L___ S________ S_______

Hey! That was my theory (even if you expressed it better and more succinctly than I did!)! And since you're one of the guys whose posts I always read since you're pretty doggone smart on pond issues, I am suddenly feeling good about my answer!

Best I got is in an extended drought you can see an increase in nitrates and salts in a water body.

wow alot happened while i was gone today. this question is way too hard for me, but i gottsta try..

that "three words or less" puzzle is worse than the wheel of fortune final.

since the pond recovered form the drought, was the sago able to re-establish itself in the "new shallows"?

everybody already said what i would have guessed and thats the increased nutrients, decreased depth, and increased light penetration factors you'd expect with a drought stricken pond...this made the calcareous (limestone) bottom substrate favorable for mass sago growth.

once the groundwater rose back to "normal" levels, more efficient nutrient flushing would occur, suspended particles and plankton growth increased turbidity to the point sago couldnt get going on its deeper substrate, let alone reach the surface, so it failed only one year after its climax.

happy valentine's day

i had bacon and shrimp fer dinner

where's bill cody?

its not too late....knowing dr. condello (a little bit) he'll make the last question worth 50 pts.

theo?, rad? burger? brettski? not even some humor points? jeeez...keep at it jhap, what you got?

What happens to a quarry during a 5 year drought? Depending on the depth of the water table relative to the pond depth, maybe nothing. However, I suspect that the natural springs reversed their flow and took rather than gave.

Looking at only these pictures, there is no way of knowing about this BOW during the drought. The aquifer could either be pretty extensive or limited to that area.

Not knowing the actual history, it may also be that this thing dried up or was pumped dry and further mining could have deepened it until the springs were hit.

During a "normal" time of rainfall, you would have a tough time pumping this place dry. Finding aquifers/ground water that cannot be pumped out has always been the bane of mining.

Can I buy a vowel?

Less Suspended Solids?