Pond Stratification and Its Effect
Many ponds and lakes are subjected to a natural environmental occurrence known as Pond Stratification.
A pond that has stratified simply means that its water source has developed layers of noticeably different water temperatures and oxygen levels as it gets deeper. The deeper the pond the wider the temperature range exists from the surface of the pond to the bottom. The colder the layer of water gets the less oxygen is dissolved within it.
In the summer months when you are swimming in a lake or a pond you will have experienced pond stratification - notice the difference between the warm water on the top and the cold water on the bottom when you are swimming.
Stratification can cause large amounts of sudden fish kill and can be a big concern for pond owners if certain environment circumstances arise when it gets disrupted or de-stratified.
Pond stratification occurs primarily in the warm summer months and typically has a devastating affect on your pond wildlife if you have weeks of warm weather followed by a sudden heavy rainstorm. The reason this happens is because after a heavy rain or any other environmental event that disrupts the layers of water that have been stratified with varying temperatures and levels of dissolved oxygen, a "de-stratification" of the pond occurs. This process depletes all the oxygen from the pond.
The turbidity created at the surface of the pond has the effect of releasing all of the dissolved oxygen from the upper layer of the water into the atmosphere causing extreme oxygen depletion and because there is very little oxygen at the colder, deeper layers of the pond, there simply is not enough oxygen in the pond to sustain the wildlife living in it.
Once this takes place a pond owner becomes alarmed for he will observe a large amount of fish kill and will right away think that it has been caused by chemical run off or some other toxic means. Worse he may start considering all sorts of drastic measures to prevent this from happening again such as adding needless and expensive chemicals to his pond. The reality is that all he needs is pond aeration to prevent this from happening again.
Pond Aeration can be provided by many different sources, windmill that pump oxygen into water or electrical compressor. The other item you need to do is diffuse the air that is being pumped into the pond.
Read more about using an Air Diffuser for pond aeration.
© 2006 Superior Windmill
Pond Aeration
