Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Leaves causing acidity?

I have about a 1.5 acre pond in eastern Kansas. The total watershed is probably about 50 acres. The last 5-10 acres of area draining to the pond is pretty heavily treed. Will the leaves coming into the pond bring the acidity up to high?

Since I and one of my daughters were born at KU Med Center, I probably should NOT be helping, but there are no rivalries on Pond Boss.

The "help" is really just a bump for your question. A lot will depend on the type of leaves entering the pond due to acid content. Also, if your ground and pond have a considerable calcium content (lime), it may go a long way toward neutrilizing the acidic effect. I do know that by placing limestone mini-dams will block tons of leaves from entering the water as well as partially neutrilizing the acid.

Welcome to the forum! What town is your pond near? I grew up in Shawnee.

Hey Rainman, thanks for the input. I grew up in Overland Park and now live in Prairie Village. As you can tell I am a Wildcat. Actually got a Fisheries Biology Degree there (1997). Unfortunately I am not working in the field but I have my pond to play with. The pond is about 80 miles south of town. It is a bit passed Mound City by a little bitty town called Mapleton.

I can remember when 75th street from Nieman west and Metcalf south of what's now I-435 were gravel roads. And that was less than 40 years ago. Over 200,000 homes in that area now!

mbj4ksu's question is of interest to me as well. Does anybody out there have input addressing the overall impact that abundant leaves can have on a BOW? Specifically the Ph levels so not to hijack the thread. I understand that there can be many factors such as leaf type & quantity, soil contents,ect.ect. Can we just say "as a rule" then adjust based upon our own specific conditions?

If I may add an additional query concerning leaves... Does an abundance of leaves have a direct effect on FA pervasiveness the following Summer? I suspect that it does but, how much?

I bet that I have spent 14+ hours removing floating leaves with a large landing net over the past month. Filled probably 4 truck loads and probably still got less than 20% of the total.

As Bill Cody would say, "It depends." Here's how it works. If the water of your pond is buffered, it will absorb acid from decaying leaves.
"Buffered" basically means how much lime (calcium carbonate) is dissolved in the water. Lime normally comes from soils. Some soils have it, some don't. For example, sand doesn't. Most clay does. Sometimes, there are limestone deposit beneath subsoils. If your water has 150 ppm calcium carbonate in it, it can buffer 150 ppm of acid.
When leaves fall into a pond, they steep, like tea. The brown of leaves is made of tannins...tannic acid.
So, if your pond has very little buffering capacity, it can (and will) be absorbed by the tannic acid of leaves.
If you want to know how the leaves will affect your water, have the water analyzed.

The second part of Blain's question "Does an abundance of leaves have a direct effect on FA pervasiveness the following Summer? I suspect that it does but, how much?" , is also an it depends answer. The first step is to have the water and dirt tested to see what your pond has in the way of nutrients and alkalinity.

FA needs water , light and nutrients (not used up by other plants first). If the pond is short in the nutrients contained in the dissolving leaves and they are not used by other plants first or bound in the soil then leaves may lead to more FA. The same can be said for any substance like fish waste , excess fish food ,fertilizer , hay , dead aquatic plants (macrophites ) etc. Even that will not lead to more FA if one of the other constraining factors is present (water to acid or base , no or very low P or turbid water for example). Even if you do have all the conditions for a fertile pond if your plankton and or other macrophites are using up all the nutrients and or shading out the light from the FA then some leaves should not matter. I do note that leaves sink down to where the FA starts its growth process (on the bottom) where they decay so the proximity of the nutrient source if needed is there.

Thanks for the info on the leaves, currently writing a newsletter article to try and get residents on six lakes to get the leaves out in the fall, not the spring, and not to just leave them there. We are sandy soil, former gravel pits of varying depths, mostly shallow. What is FA? We are in Michigan and have hard water, I even see some iron(deposits) on my frontage where the springs seep into the lake. Any other advice to motivate these residents would be great.
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FA = Filamentous Algae