The cycle of substances in the lake is not completely closed. Therefore, often after many years the lake turns into another ecosystem - the swamp. How does this happen?
Streams and rivers flowing into the lakes with their rapid current carry a lot of grains of sand and small particles of soil. There are no currents in the lakes.
Therefore, all soil particles begin to settle to the bottom. The remains of dead plants and animals are mixed with them and remain on the bottom.
Probably less than 10% of the above ground primary productivity in a saltmarsh actually gets grazed. Most plant biomass dies and decays and is passed through the detrital food web where the major consumers are bacteria and fungi. Salt marsh ecology involves complex food webs which include primary producers (vascular plants, macroalgae, diatoms, epiphytes, and phytoplankton), primary consumers (zooplankton, macrozoa, molluscs, insects), and secondary consumers.
Silt accumulates in the lake. In the lake, sprouts, water lilies, arrowhead and other plants grow.
A continuous carpet of green plants floating on the water is called an alloy. The transformation of the lake into the swamp of Splavin is gradually closing, capturing the entire lake. The bottom, filled with silt with undecomposed remnants of organisms, rises. Near the coast there is a moss of sphagnum, which covers the lake with a thick carpet.
Cranberries, wild rosemary and sedges are located on this carpet. The former lake turns into a swamp. Who lives in such an ecosystem? One of the most interesting swamp inhabitants is sphagnum moss.
This plant has an amazing ability to absorb water. Only 10 g of moss (and this is the weight of one matchbox) can 'drink' a glass of water. Another interesting property of sphagnum is a healing one.
This plant can kill germs. Therefore, the water in the sphagnum bog is very clean.
The structure of the moss moss moss is very long and leaves its base deep into the water. At the surface of the water, all the plants are green. Below you can see whitish dead parts of sphagnum. Even lower are brown half-decomposed parts of moss. This is the same sphagnum, but only long dead. The dead parts of plants do not collapse, as there are few 'scavengers' in the swamps. Semidecomposed plant remains gradually thicken and turn into peat.
In many areas, dry furnaces are heated with dry peat. Even electricity in power plants is produced using peat as fuel. Among the marsh plants is famous for cranberries. Cranberries are especially good, they are caught in frost. People always collected this curative berries. In addition to cranberries on the marshes, there are other delicious berries: blueberries, cloudberries. Many interesting plants can be seen in the marshes.
And what animals live there? Among the inhabitants of the marshes the most common frog is known. Animals - inhabitants of bogs (sandpiper, mosquito, frog, elk, white partridge, crane).
Typical inhabitants of marshes are partridges, waders, cranes. Often you can meet elks here. Material from the site And on the swamps there are a lot of small bloodsucking insects - mosquitoes. Wormlike larvae of mosquitoes live in the lake and, being 'garbage collectors', feed on waste of different organisms on its bottom. But adult mosquitoes become 'eaters' - they suck the blood of even large animals and humans.
Together with 'breadwinners' and 'eaters' in the swamps, there are also 'scavengers'. Without them, the cycle could not be closed. But the life of 'scavengers' is very difficult. Especially hard is small bacteria. Under the sphagnum layer is damp, there is no oxygen for breathing. Moreover, there are accumulated poisonous substances, harmful to living organisms.