Database of Plants and Animals in Cumbrian Tarns
Why did we create a database?
There are currently 400,000 lakes, tarns and ponds in Great Britain of which the vast majority are less than 1 ha in area. These small water bodies are vital for biodiversity.
Where the data has come from.
A great deal of data (physical, chemical, water plants, phytoplankton, zooplankton, benthic invertebrates and fish etc) exist for many of the small water bodies of the Lake District . The Freshwater Biological Association (FBA) holds data (published and unpublished) on all these aspects of ponds and tarns, most of which was collected many years ago.
Ralph Stokoe collected water plant records in about 400 tarns between 1975 and 1980. ( Aquatic Macrophytes in the tarns and lakes of Cumbria , by Ralph Stokoe, FBA occasional publication No. 18, 1983.)
The database will eventually hold tarn data from Stokoe and a variety of other sources and will include the records being collected by our teams of specially trained volunteers who started surveying tarns (20) last season and who are have already surveyed 16 tarns this year and the plant survey season has only just begun!
Re-sampling the ponds/tarns visited in the 70's and 80's will allow us to compare the past and the present to;
- Find out if biodiversity is changing - including information on species losses and new species' presence (including invasive species)
- Throw some light on effects of modified upland land use over the last 25 years.
- Indicate changes which might be due to climate change
- Add to the national knowledge of small water bodies (for example, Pond Conservation's National Pond Database).
