The water's edge (hydrosere) habitat of lentic ecosystems is the marginal edge of lakes and ponds, where rooted plants can grow. The habitat includes shallow water, where sunlight can penetrate to the bottom, commonly known as the littoral zone. The littoral zone often applies to the entire area of ponds, which are generally shallow enough to support submerged vegetation throughout.

The water's edge habitat is always wet, though the water level may vary seasonally and the habitat is frozen for some period during the winter. Aquatic life is most abundant in the shallow water around the edges of lentic environments. In south-western Nova Scotia, a number of rare coastal plain plants occupy this habitat.

This Document Includes:

Formation
Physical Aspects
Ecosystem
Successional Sequence
Plants
Animals
Distribution
Special Features

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Additional Keywords:
sphagnum moss, Water Lobelia, Loosestrife, Pipewort, Broad-leaf, Pickerel-weed, Spike Rush, Bog Buckbean, Pipewort, Arrowhead, cattail, bulrush, pondweed, duckweed, milfoil, White Water-crowfoot, Stonewort, beetles, mosquitos, mayfly, caddisfly, dragonfly, Hyalella azteca, Caecidotea communis, oligochaete worms, leeches, snails, clams, Banded Killifish, Golden Shiner White Sucker, Green Frog, Elliptio complanata, Green Sponge, Spotted Sandpipers, Black Ducks, Canada Geese, loon, cormorant, gull, Red-winged Blackbird, herons, bitterns, Tree Swallows, mink, beaver, otter, Muskrat, sedges, Twig-Rush

Associated Topics:

T8.1 Freshwater Hydrology
T8.2 Freshwater Environments
T9.1 Soil-forming Factors
T10.2 Successional Trends in Vegetation
T10.5 Seed-bearing Plants
T10.9 Algae
T11.5 Freshwater Wetland Birds and Waterfowl
T11.11 Small Mammals
T11.13 Freshwater Fishes
T11.15 Amphibians and Reptiles
T11.16 Land and Freshwater Invertebrates

Associated Habitats:

H3.2 Open-water Lentic (Lakes)
H3.4 Bottom Lentic (Lakes and Ponds)
H3.5 Water's Edge Lotic (Rivers and Streams)