- Who are wheel animals?
- What invertebrates live in the lake?
- What is the benthic fauna of the lake?
Zooplankton feeds on phytoplankton
In summer, the warm lake water is bubbling with all sorts of small creatures. Many of them roam in the surface layers of the water, but invertebrates are also found in large numbers between aquatic plants and at the bottom of the lake.
Between the algae, there are also numerous small animals that form zooplankton. They feed on phytoplankton and bacteria. Zooplankton is the first food for fish fry. Many fish continue to feed on it as an adult. Water fleas, copepods, and wheel animals account for the majority of the zooplankton.
produces food for itself from simple substances.
feeds on bacteria and phytoplankton.
Fish fry feed mostly on.
The vegetation near the shore is rich in animals
The shallow water near the shore warms up quickly. Therefore, there are many invertebrates there: some attach to aquatic plants, some move between the plants, others make up plankton. Many of them can be seen with the naked eye, but there are even more very tiny animals that can only be seen with a microscope.
Water bodies are the "nursery" for many terrestrial insects. Here you will find, for example, the larvae of mosquitoes, dragonflies, mayflies, and many other insects. Dragonfly larvae are tiny predators that eat the larvae of other insects, as well as smaller tadpoles and fish fry. Many adult dragonflies like to hunt prey over the lake, but as fast flyers, they also go further away from the water. The great pond snail crawls at the bottom of the water or on plants, which it also eats for food.
Think!
- What do the animals living between the lake vegetation feed on?
- Backswimmer
- Swimmer
- Striker
- Dragonfly larvae
- Horse-leech
- Great pond snail
- Downswimmer
- Water scorpion
- Diving screetle
- Swan mussel
- Whirligig beetle
- Great snail
There are various insects on the water's surface and in the lake water
On the water's surface, tiny black whirligig beetles swirl around, and water striders run with long legs. Diving beetles with a broad dark body and paddle-like hind legs float in the water. They can be seen when they come to breathe on the surface, though they mainly operate at the bottom of the water body and between plants. Both diving beetles and their larvae feed on other invertebrates. Large diving beetles can attack even small fish.
The benthic fauna of the lakes are diverse
On the bottom of lakes lives an even richer and more diverse group of animals. There are several species of snails, mussels, leeches, and the larvae of many insects. While swimming, you may find large shells on the shore of the lake, which are greenish-brown on the outside, and shiny on the inside. These shells belong to swan mussels. Several species of leeches live on the lake bed. The dark horse-leech is very common, with a long, flat body.
- Great pond snail
- Horse-leech
- Whirligig beetle
- Wheel animal
- Swan mussel
- Water strider
- Water flea
- Copepod
- Diving beetle
Think!
- What do the benthic fauna of the lakes feed on?
I now know that…
Lake water is filled with all sorts of small creatures. Small animals make up zooplankton. Coastal aquatic vegetation is rich in fauna. There are larvae of many insects. On the surface of the water, we can see whirligig beetles and long-legged water striders. The benthic fauna of the lakes are very diverse. There are snails, mussels, leeches, and the larvae of many insects.
