Ponds are fertile places of peace and relaxation in the midst of everyday affairs and bustle. This is not only the contemplation of the picturesque views of the surrounding nature, tasting of cool freshness and silence after the city noise, but also the opportunity to swim, go fishing or simply feed the inhabitants of the reservoir. What is a pond and what features does it have, we will try to understand further in the article.
The definition of word "pond"
According to the wording of dictionaries, a pond is a reservoir in an artificial or natural depression with a small surface area of the water, created for a specific purpose and purpose. It is used for fish and waterfowl breeding, land irrigation, recreational activities or for some aesthetic reasons. It is worth noting that such a definition of a pond also includes a dam in a river, usually abundant in fish.
If in the original plan ponds were built near settlements only because of the lack of natural reservoirs, then later they were created independently of this. Today, artificial ponds are increasingly a tribute to fashion and are located in private property and summer cottages.
Distinctive features
For a better understanding of what a pond is, it is worth getting acquainted with its characteristic, which has its own distinctive features:
- The surface area of the pond on average is not more than 1 km².
- The erosion-resistant bed of the bottom has a steep slope, while the banks are allowed with relative steepness.
- If the pond does not have soil recharge, then in winter it can be completely freezing, and in the hot season it can dry out.
- A strong fluctuation of the water level is allowed at the pond depending on the prevailing weather (lowering the level with steadily hot, increasing after an abundance of rains).
- The entire water area of the pond has the same composition of water, the same vegetation and wildlife.
A bit of history
The very first artificial ponds began to be created in the most ancient civilizations of the Middle East. As a rule, they had a simple rectangular shape and did not differ in exquisite design. Only later in the forms could some kind of diversity be noticed. In the culture of Ancient Rome, such ponds were already noted that they meant a certain division, most often for swimming and for decorative purposes.
Presumably, the first garden pond appeared in ancient Egypt, and its purpose was practical. Such a reservoir was used for breeding waterfowl or planting plant food. During the time of the strong piety of the Egyptians, the chic temple gardens began to be celebrated with special decorative ponds, such that it was estimated as works of art.
Types of ponds
Artificially created pond requires careful selection of a place and consideration of natural conditions. Based on this, several of its main types are divided:
- Ponds replenished with water through precipitation. They are erected in wide, sloping hollows in the relief, at which a relatively small dam is built. It allows you to accumulate a sufficiently large volume of water. The depth of such ponds averages 1.5 meters.
- Ponds that exist thanks to existing natural keys. Regardless of the season of the year, they constantly receive the same amount of water. In this case, the average temperature of the water from the source does not change even in the summer and does not rise above 11-12 ° C.
- Ponds supplied with water from rivers. Due to certain conditions, they are built in floodplain or riverbed. The latter erect, blocking the river with earthen dams in one of the narrow parts of the floodplain. The design of the structure is such that water enters the pond on its own, through a channel from a backwater.
- Digging. They are pits up to 1.5 m deep. They do not have a natural source and feed on meltwater through rains, as well as through a pumping unit of a local water supply or from another reservoir. It is such ponds that are most often created in the territories of city parks, squares and private garden plots.
In addition to the standard division, the ponds can be of different purposes: decorative, recreational, technical or for economic purposes.
Pond or lake?
Most of the lakes and ponds, at first glance, are very similar and hardly differ from each other. These reservoirs can be with standing water or with slow water exchange, of different depths and sizes, as well as the degree of population of the plant and animal world. Nevertheless, they still have differences.
The first and main thing that will distinguish any water resources is the nature of their origin: whether the object is the result of human activity or is it the result of relief-forming processes that give birth to natural bodies of water, such as seas and lakes. Ponds, which, incidentally, are not always inferior in area to the latter, are of artificial origin, and their life activity is completely controlled by man.
In addition, there are differences in the following:
- As part of water. At lakes it can be fresh, salty and mixed, at ponds it is always fresh.
- During. Unlike the lake, the pond has no current.
- In microorganisms. Plankton and nekton live only in lakes.
It is interesting to note that it is generally accepted to call lakes reservoirs that do not communicate with the sea or ocean and are closed on their shores.