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Discovering Kwilakm
  • Discovering Kwilákm
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  • Changing Climate
    • Hotter Ocean Temperatures
    • Changing Ocean Chemistry
    • Rising Sea Levels and Intensifying Winter Storms
    • When Seashore Temperatures Spike – Killer Heat Dome 2021
  • Terminal Creek
    • Where does Terminal Creek’s Water Come From?
    • Signal Crayfish
    • Terminal Creek Fish Hatchery
  • The Lagoon
    • The Tidal Inlet that became the Lagoon
    • Aquatic Plants
    • Chum Salmon
    • The Beaver
    • Canada Geese
    • Three-Spined Stickleback
  • Shores
    • Nearshore Forests
    • Beaches
    • The Terminal Creek Sand Flats
    • The Curious Clay Beds of Kwilákm
    • Blue Mussels
    • Clams
    • Purple Stars
    • Oysters in Kwilákm
  • Shallows
    • Eelgrass
    • Young Chum Salmon
    • Winter Bay Birds
    • Year-Round Bay Birds
  • Deeper Waters
    • Plankton
    • Northern Anchovy
    • Harbour Seal
    • Octopus
Conservancy logoBowen Island Conservancy
    • About
    • Get Involved
  • Discovering Kwilákm
    • About
    • Get Involved
  • Changing Climate
    • Hotter Ocean Temperatures
    • Changing Ocean Chemistry
    • Rising Sea Levels and Intensifying Winter Storms
    • When Seashore Temperatures Spike – Killer Heat Dome 2021
  • Terminal Creek
    • Where does Terminal Creek’s Water Come From?
    • Signal Crayfish
    • Terminal Creek Fish Hatchery
  • The Lagoon
    • The Tidal Inlet that became the Lagoon
    • Aquatic Plants
    • Chum Salmon
    • The Beaver
    • Canada Geese
    • Three-Spined Stickleback
  • Shores
    • Nearshore Forests
    • Beaches
    • The Terminal Creek Sand Flats
    • The Curious Clay Beds of Kwilákm
    • Blue Mussels
    • Clams
    • Purple Stars
    • Oysters in Kwilákm
  • Shallows
    • Eelgrass
    • Young Chum Salmon
    • Winter Bay Birds
    • Year-Round Bay Birds
  • Deeper Waters
    • Plankton
    • Northern Anchovy
    • Harbour Seal
    • Octopus
Bladderwort aquatic plants shown underwater.

Photo: Will Husby

The Lagoon

Aquatic Plants

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Discover Kwilakm » Story » The Lagoon » Aquatic Plants
Beneath the surface of the lagoon
When you look beneath the surface of the Lagoon, you can see an underwater forest of pondweeds and other aquatic plants swaying gently in the current. As well, the waters are murky with the growth of several species of freshwater phytoplankton adapted to thrive in the warm nutrient soup that is the lagoon waters. Photo: Bob Turner

In summer, the Lagoon’s shallow water is warmed by the sun. The abundant nutrients in the water provide ideal growing conditions for a variety of aquatic plants.

If the sun is shining directly on the water, look closely and you can see clouds of tiny bubbles gathered around the Lagoon’s plants. You are seeing photosynthesis in action. All plants take in carbon dioxide, combine sunlight with carbon dioxide and water and then to synthesize their food. Plants use the carbon dioxide to fuel their own growth and release oxygen (split from the water) in the form of tiny bubbles.

This profusion of aquatic vegetation provides abundant food and shelter—ideal habitat for bacteria, snails, crayfish, water boatmen bugs, and other aquatic insects which in turn attract predator insects such as the damselfly and dragonfly nymphs, predacious diving beetles, and water scorpions. And this habitat is also ideal for fish such as sticklebacks, salmon fry, and shiner perch.

The abundance of these small fry attract larger herbivores and predators. Dabbling ducks such as mallards come to feed on the water plants.

Mallard duck skimming the water
On the Lagoon’s surface, mallard ducks, who are mostly vegetarian, filter out small seeds and other particles using the tip of their bill tip to draw surface water in, then pass it through a lattice of fine combs along each side of their jaw to separate the good stuff. Photo: Cathy Robertson
Mallard tipping to feed beneath surface
To reach submerged vegetation, mallards extend their reach by foraging head-down.Photo: Judith McBride

Mergansers, grebes, and great blue herons hunt the small creatures that hide in the aquatic plant jungle.

Hooded merganser fishing in the Lagoon
A hooded merganser with a sculpin it caught in the Lagoon. Photo: Will Husby

More About The Lagoon

  • The Lagoon
  • The Tidal Inlet that became the Lagoon
  • Aquatic Plants
  • Chum Salmon
  • The Beaver
  • Canada Geese
  • Three-Spined Stickleback


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