One of the most intriguing and still rather mysterious water ecosystems are small mid-field ponds. Relatively little attention is devoted to representatives of ichthyofauna inhabiting them. The purpose of this work was the evaluation of the species and quantitative composition of the fish inhabiting several selected mid-field ponds (five), and the analysis of habitat conditions and the possibility of utilising small countryside ponds for angling purposes. Overall, 203 fish belonging to eight species were caught. The highest number was recorded in the pond No. 5 (84 specimens), and the lowest number was recorded in the pond No. 3 (18 specimens), where all the fish belonged to one species - Carassius auratus gibelio. No fish habitation was detected in the pond No. 1.The highest dominance index (Di) was achieved by Perca fluviatilis (33.5%) and Carassius carassius (17.73%), whereas the lowest index belonged to Scardinius erythrophtalmus (2.46%) and Blicca bjoerkna (5.42%). The comparison of constancy index values (Ci) indicates that as many as six fish species out of eight demonstrated high constancy of 60%, whereas two fish species (Blicca bjoerkna and Scardinius erythrophtalmus) reached a low level of constancy amounting to 20%. The studied ponds predominantly featured good or very good conditions ...
Amphibian survey conducted in 2010-2012 in two mid-field ponds in the village of Stare Czarnowo, in the north-western part of Poland. The aim of the study was to evaluate the species composition and abundance of adult and juvenile amphibians and their breeding sites. It was found that in both ponds dominated brown frogs: especially Rana arvalis and green frogs: Pelophylax esculentus, Pelophylax lessonae. We meet them not only during the mating season, but throughout the study period also in adjacent agricultural fields and coastline. Less numerous in this area occurred: Hyla arboreta and Bombina bombina. The rarest representative of batrachofauna was Pelobates fuscus, which appeared only in one pond in 2012. In both ponds were recorded occurrence of a representative of the tailed amphibians: Lissotriton vulgaris. Numerous occurrence of amphibians in these mid-field ponds is a good sign, because batrachofauna is an excellent bioindicator aquatic environment. ...
Midfield ponds are characterised by a rich biodiversity. A significant role in the function of these specific water ecosystems is played by resident zooplankton, which is a valuable component of numerous trophic networks. The aim of the present work was to study the taxonomic composition, concentration and biomass of zooplankton in two midfield ponds situated in the area of one commune, but geomorphologically different from each other. Experiments were conducted in the summer seasons (June-August) in the years 2011-2013 in two ponds. The presence of 55 zooplankton taxa, commonly present in such water reservoirs in Poland, was observed. Most species were determined. The largest group comprised rotifers (Rotifera) - 35 taxa. The crustacean zooplankton was less diverse: 11 taxa of copepods (Copepoda) and 9 taxa of water fleas (Cladocera) were found. The reservoir in Stare Czarnowo exhibited a greater number of taxa, where as many as 40 taxa were observed. However, 35 taxa belonging to various zooplankton groups were found in the pond in Żelisławiec. The relatively low Jaccard index confirmed small qualitative similarity between the studied ponds. Both reservoirs contained representatives of species defined as characteristic for oligosaprobic and mesosaprobic waters, which may indicate small contamination of the two ...
River monitoring for the status and species composition of ichthyofauna is one of the forms of open water fisheries management. Research conducted on 10 selected for maintenance works of small rivers was to determine the composition and density of native and invasive fish and estimating the European Fish Index (EFI +) to assess the ecological status of designated sites in these rivers located in the Vistula and Oder basin. A total of 1405 fish, belonging to 24 species, were captured. Native species predominated, however, 19% of the fish caught were invasive species. The most common species was roach (Rutilus rutilus), but the most numerous was the gudgeon (Gobio gobio). At the researched stations, the maximum value of the EFI+ amounted to 0.868. After division into classes according to the value of the EFI + index, the majority of investigated sites where fish were found (24 of 28 sites), the EFI + value was between 0.00 to 0.40. This relatively small value indicated a poor condition of fish habitats, which was confirmed by low classes of ecological status at individual sites. Only in the case of the 1st position in the Tywa river and the 3rd position in the Czarna-Cedron ...
The agricultural landscape of Western Pomerania is characterised by frequent occurrence of small, post-glacial water ponds commonly called mid-field ponds. They serve numerous important functions, bothwith regard to agriculture and ecology. Due to their specific location in the agricultural landscape, they are exposed to permanent and strong anthropic pressure, which often translates into pollution of surface waterand benthic sediments with macro-and microelements. This study attempts to assess and determine the level of macro - and microelements in benthic sediments, depending on the type of agricultural production,on the example of selected mid-field ponds. The assessed benthic sediments of both ponds were characterised by varied macro - and microelement levels, depending on the collection site and the depth of their deposition. Based on the performed chemical analyses it was found that both observation points in the pond Żelisławiec were characterised by the highest concentrations occurring in the top layer (0-5 cm), which isrelated to the fact that there are areas of agriculture in the pond basin with the use of mineral and organic fertilisation and occurrence of higher water erosion. And the other assessed mid-field pond (Stare Czarnowo)showed the highest concentration of microelements in the middle layer, 5-15 cm. Statistical analyses revealed ...
