Relationships Between Hydrology and the Freshwater Fauna of Kettle Ponds and Vernal Pools in the Cape Cod National Seashore
The freshwater kettle depressions of Cape Cod National Seashore provide important habitat for a great variety of wetland and aquatic plants, amphibians, and aquatic invertebrates. Some of these biological communities, including the shoreline flora of coastal kettle ponds and obligate amphibians and amphibians of vernal pools, are particularly dependent on seasonal fluctuations in the groundwater table for maintaining habitat characteristics.
Increasing human demand for potable water supplies is placing pressure on aquifers throughout Cape Cod, and this pressure is increasing on the Outer Cape, including the land within the Seashore. Future withdrawals of water for human use have the potential to affect the availability of water to freshwater wetlands, vernal pools, and kettle ponds.
To help understand the implications for biological resources of such withdrawals, we are evaluating relationships between hydrology and the freshwater fauna of shallow water habitats within the Seashore to complement ongoing research by National Park Service staff and the Cape Cod Commission on hydrology, chemistry, and plant communities. Work focuses on aquatic macroinvertebrate communities of the littoral zone of two kettle ponds, Duck Pond and Gull Pond, and on the amphibians and macroinvertebrates of a cluster of shallow wetlands functioning as vernal pools within a square-mile area south of Cable Road in Eastham.