Monitoring protocol for kettle pond vegetation of Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts

Smith, Stephen

Kettle ponds provide critical habitat for a variety of plant and animal life. A number of aquatic plant species designated by the State of Massachusetts as Endangered, Threatened, Special Concern, and Watch Listed occur around pond edges. The ponds are also a major attraction for humans. With this brings a number of concerns, including trampling and denudation of shoreline and littoral zone vegetation, erosion, bather urination, and septic effluent (that adds nitrogen and phosphorus to the system) from houses surrounding the ponds. More broadly, water quality of rainfall can influence pond pH and nutrient status. Toxic metals in precipitation and groundwater can also be potential problems. Finally, there are biotic threats to pond communities—especially exotic plant species such as Phragmites australis (common reed) and Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife). In Massachusetts, there are many species of invasive submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) which have not yet been found in the kettle ponds but are an ongoing concern. These and other invasive taxa have the potential to seriously compromise biological diversity and habitat structure as they have in many other wetland systems. The primary monitoring objective of this protocol is to assess whether CACO’s kettle pond vegetation is changing over time. Some basic environmental parameters that are available as part of this protocol (e.g., sediment organic matter) and from other monitoring programs (e.g., climatological, hydrological) can then be used to formulate possible reasons for change. However, additional research that is focused on more specific hypotheses (e.g., influence of human-associated nutrient inputs) may be needed to answer the question(s) more fully.

Monitoring protocol for kettle pond vegetation of Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts

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