Photo: Will Husby
The Lagoon
Aquatic Plants
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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.
Mergansers, grebes, and great blue herons hunt the small creatures that hide in the aquatic plant jungle.
