In 1995, several scientists who They studied ancient craters left by World War II bombs in Europe discovered something unexpected: Decades after the war, many of those holes filled with water had become small natural refuges where amphibians, insects and birds that barely found safe spaces elsewhere in the landscape thrived.
A hole in the ground that ended up changing an ecosystem. In many gardens, the corners where water accumulates after rain are often seen as a problem: uncomfortable mud, grass that is impossible to maintain or small puddles that sooner or later someone ends up draining.
However, in the midst of the global crisis that amphibians go throughthose spaces are beginning to look different. In fact, they had a few days ago in Economics a story that occurred on a small plot of land near a fish farm that demonstrates the extent to which something seemingly insignificant can be transformed into an unexpected refuge for wildlife.
The idea of building a pond that would disappear. Apparently, the owner decided to dig a shallow depression, barely about 60 centimetersright in an area where thaw and rain already accumulated water naturally before ending up being lost in a ditch. The key to the project was precisely that it was not a permanent pond.
It was designed as a “vernal pool”a seasonal pond intended to fill during winter and spring and gradually dry out in summer. This detail is essential because it prevents the presence of fish, one of the greatest dangers for eggs and tadpoles. Shallow water also warms faster and accelerates the development of larvae before the pond disappears, something essential for species that live against the clock.
The frogs are coming. The most surprising it was the speed with which nature responded. Just weeks after filling with rain and meltwater, five gelatinous masses of wood frog eggs appeared attached to submerged branches near the shore. Although at first glance they seemed like small isolated groups, each of these masses could contain hundreds or even thousands of eggs.
The pond still had very little vegetation and just a few logs, leaves and accumulated mud, but that was enough for the amphibians to immediately identify the place as a safe breeding point. A corner of grass with no apparent use had just become a natural nursery for one of the most endangered species on the planet.
The mud also attracted other species. The frogs weren’t the only ones to take advantage of the change. Part of the shore was deliberately left bare and muddy to favor swallows, which need wet mud to build and reinforce their nests. The previous year several had inspected the dwelling without remaining definitively, possibly due to lack of suitable materials nearby.
Now the garden offered just what they needed. Plus: to that was added a bat box placed next to the pond, creating a small ecosystem where insects, amphibians, birds and mammals began to interact around the water. What was once a uniform surface of grass and pine trees began to transform into a much more vivid and diverse mosaic.
The silent amphibian crisis. As they remembered in the middleall this occurs at a particularly delicate time for amphibians. Near of 40% of the species on the planet are threatened with extinction due to habitat loss, disease and climate change that alter the rains and dry out entire breeding areas.
In this context, small temporary ponds like this one are beginning to acquire enormous importance because they offer just the conditions that many species need to survive. The problem is that, being small and seasonal spaces, there are often outside the protections traditional legal systems and go unnoticed in the face of much larger wetlands.
The idea that is changing many gardens. He experimentFurthermore, it leaves a powerful conclusion: a simple shallow hole can become a useful piece within a much larger network of refuges for amphibians and other species. Obviously, a single pond will not change on its own the global crisis of biodiversity, but thousands of small interventions distributed among gardens, farms, parks or schools can begin to create safe corridors for increasingly pressured animals.
And perhaps the most striking thing is that a good part of these spaces already exist: they are precisely those corners of the garden where every spring a puddle appears that someone usually tries to eliminate as soon as possible.
Image | Pexels
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