2. By: KiAndre Oliver, Brandon Bullock, Jasmyn Bednar, Jared Ruoff

3.  A lake or pond is a body of water isolated (apart from) other bodies of water such as oceans or rivers.  These are aquatic ecosystems.  Lakes and ponds contain most of the worlds fresh water.  A famous lake is the “Great Lakes” located along the U.S and Canadian border.  “Lake Victoria” is the largest lake in Africa and second largest in the world located in Central Africa and serves as a border lake for Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya.

4.  Most lakes are in higher or mountain areas.  Lakes are basically bigger and deeper ponds.  Usually fresh water.  Lakes have 2 layers. Epilimnion which is the higher, warmer, and has more nutrients with lots of plants and animals. Hypolimnion is the deeper, darker level with very few plants and animals.

5.  Some are formed by glaciers.  There aren’t any lakes in Scotland.  A dirty or polluted lake is rich with algae and is called eutrophic. Clean lakes are called oligotrophic and have small amounts of algae.

6.  Animals would include birds, birds of prey, fresh water fish, zooplankton, mammals such as otters or beavers, reptiles and crustaceans.  Plants include duckweed and algae as well as plants that sit beside lakes such as ferns and trees.  In shallow areas sunlight reaches the bottom and plants can grow here.

7.  Species in ponds include amphibians, small fish, invertebrates, crustaceans, birds/birds of prey, plankton, and amoebas(a single celled organism).  Ponds are smaller and shallower than lakes.  Temperatures are pretty even and vary depending on the temperature outside.  Very few waves.

8.  Ponds usually have a muddy bottom.  Plants include algae, reeds, duckweed, lillypads, small bushes, and grasses.  Ponds are basically smaller depressions of water.  Some ponds or lakes can start as a puddle that never dried but instead grew bigger. Usually they go in small basins to be a pond and bigger basin like areas to be a lake.

9. Oeschinen Lake in the Swiss Alps

10. A pond.

11. Another pond

12. A lake

13. http://www.enchantedlearning.com http://www.asemwater.org www.enclyclopedia.com www.ypte.org.uk http://www.kidsgoe.com http://www.hamiltonnature.org http://keep3.sijfc.edu http://www.42explore.com http://www.aquahabitat.com en.wikipedia.org