Ponds and Lakes
Dana Desonie, Ph.D.
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Printed: January 19, 2015
AUTHOR
Dana Desonie, Ph.D.
www.ck12.org
C HAPTER
Chapter 1. Ponds and Lakes
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Ponds and Lakes
• Describe the characteristics of ponds and lakes.
Why are lakes important?
Lakes are important habitats for lots of plants and animals. The slow motions of the water are easier for organisms
to live in than the water from rapidly moving streams. Some animals live on land but get at least part of their food
from lakes or ponds. This eagle is fishing for its meal. What would happen if lakes dried up?
Ponds and Lakes
After a heavy rain, you may find puddles of water standing in low spots. The same principle explains why water
collects in ponds and lakes. Water travels downhill, so a depression in the ground fills with standing water. A pond
is a small body of standing water. A lake is a large body of standing water. Most lakes have freshwater, but a few
are salty. The Great Salt Lake in Utah is an example of a saltwater lake.
The water in a large lake may be so deep that sunlight cannot penetrate all the way to the bottom. Without sunlight,
water plants and algae cannot live on the bottom of the lake. That’s because plants need sunlight for photosynthesis.
Water in Ponds and Lakes
Ponds and lakes may get their water from several sources. Some falls directly into them as precipitation. Some
enters as runoff and some from streams and rivers. Water leaves ponds and lakes through evaporation and also as
outflow.
How Lakes Form
The depression that allows water to collect to form a lake may come about in a variety of ways. The Great Lakes, for
example, are glacial lakes. A glacial lake forms when a glacier scrapes a large hole in the ground. When the glacier
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melts, the water fills the hole and forms a lake. A kettle lake forms in the sediment left by a glacier when a block of
ice melts. Kettle lakes are found where continental glaciers once covered the land (Figure’ 1.1). Over time lakes get
water from rain, streams, and groundwater coming to the surface.
FIGURE 1.1
A moose in a kettle lake at Denali National Park in Alaska.
Other lakes are crater lakes or rift lakes ( Figure 1.2). Crater lakes form when volcanic eruptions create craters that
fill with water. Rift lakes form when movements of tectonic plates create low places that fill with water.
FIGURE 1.2
Craters and rifts become lakes when they
fill with water.
Where does the water
come from?
The Great Lakes
Large lakes are similar to oceans. They have tides and currents. Large lakes can affect weather patterns. The Great
Lakes ( Figure 1.3) contain 22% of the world’s fresh surface water. The largest of them, Lake Superior, has a tide
that rises and falls several centimeters each day. The Great Lakes cause “lake effect” snow. In the winter, a large
amount of snow may fall downwind of the relatively warm lakes. The Great Lakes are home to countless species of
fish and wildlife.
Reservoirs
Many lakes are not natural, but are human-made. People dam a stream in a suitable spot. Water backs up behind the
dam, creating a lake. These lakes are "reservoirs" ( Figure 1.4).
Summary
• Ponds are small water bodies often fed by springs.
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Chapter 1. Ponds and Lakes
FIGURE 1.3
The Great Lakes of North America get
their name from their great size.
FIGURE 1.4
Hoover Dam, near Las Vegas, Nevada,
creates a reservoir on the Colorado River.
The reservoir is called Lake Mead.
• A lake or pond may form wherever water can collect. A lake basin could be a volcanic crater, where a glacier
has carved out a depression, or a fault zone.
• A reservoir is a man-made lake.
Explore More
Use the resource below to answer the questions that follow.
• Lakes and Ponds at http://www.untamedscience.com/biology/biomes/lakes-ponds-biome/ (3:30)
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MEDIA
Click image to the left or use the URL below.
URL: http://www.ck12.org/flx/render/embeddedobject/116966
1.
2.
3.
4.
List the zones of a lake.
What would you find if you went scuba diving in a large lake?
Describe what happens in a temperate lake over a year.
What will happen to a lake over time?
Review
1. Describe how different types of lakes form.
2. How is a large lake like an ocean? How is it different?
3. What is the difference between ponds and lakes? How are they similar?
References
1. Courtesy of Jacob W. Frank, National Park Services. A moose in a kettle lake at Denali National Park in Alas
ka . CC BY 2.0
2. Left: Indrik myneur; Right: Courtesy of UNEP/GRID. Craters and rifts become lakes when they fill with w
ater . Left: CC BY 2.0; Right: Non-copyrighted and available for free use
3. Courtesy of Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Satellite image of t
he Great Lakes . Public Domain
4. User:snakefisch/Wikipedia. Hoover Dam created Lake Mead along the Colorado River . Public Domain
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