The narrow waterway, in the Currie Park woods northeast of the intersection of W. One reason is the proximity of streets and residential neighborhoods. They harbor three salamander species native to Wisconsin - spotted, tiger and blue spotted - along with newts, Reinartz said.įrom his monitoring efforts, Barbeau knows that the Wauwatosa pond no longer sustains salamanders. They emerge from soil in a forest in late winter to lay egg masses in ephemeral ponds and begin another cycle of life.Įphemeral ponds at the field station are far removed from development. "Salamanders use ponds for breeding but live the rest of the year in the woods," said Jim Reinartz, director of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Field Station at the Cedarburg Bog. Salamanders are uncommon today because development in the region has removed woods and forests they depend on for food and winter shelters or paved over and filled in depressions that once provided seasonal ponds. So a fish-free environment is perfect for salamanders and frogs. Fish, if they were present, would eat eggs of amphibians and other small animals. No streams fill or drain these isolated ponds, so no fish call them home, Barbeau said. Ephemeral ponds have not been inventoried in the past, and they generally are not identified as wetlands on maps. ![]() This spring and last, Barbeau and several dozen other volunteers spread out across 10 counties in eastern Wisconsin to get a close look at hundreds of depressions on the landscape that hold water for a short time. Dark dots suspended in the blob likely are frog or toad eggs, he said. Wriggling strings, no more than a quarter-inch long, are mosquito larvae.īarbeau lifts a piece of tree bark off the water's surface, pointing to a small blob of clear jelly on the wood. ![]() They eventually will join snails in eating leaves, algae and fungi. Those are the main predators in this neighborhood.Īll this life bursts onto the scene for a few months each spring and summer while temporary ponds hold water, according to Gail Epping Overholt, Milwaukee River Basin educator with the University of Wisconsin Extension in Milwaukee.Įpping Overholt describes such ephemeral ponds as hot spots for biological diversity and the forest equivalent of a coral reef in the ocean.Ĭaddisflies reside at the Wauwatosa pond, each tucked inside a protective case made of leaves and stems. They float belly up.Īn explosion of fairy shrimp in late April and early May clogged the water and became the menu for diving beetles, damselflies, dragonflies and backswimmers, a true bug, Barbeau said. ![]() Reddish dots on the fabric are water mites, he said.Ī nearly transparent crustacean with a bulbous head is a male fairy shrimp, a relative of the lobster, said Barbeau, a biologist and volunteer pond monitor. Two mallard ducks cautiously paddle away from Barbeau, but there is no indication of aquatic life until he lifts a net out of the water. Highway 45 - to glimpse a bustling community of other creatures. Jody Barbeau wades into a shallow pond in woods less than a mile from shoppers at Mayfair Mall and commuters on congested U.S.
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