The Birmingham News
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- A red pond at Ruffner Mountain Nature Center, once
eyed as an ecological casualty, turns out to have a mother lode of life.
Just standing on its banks and observing water the color of sun-dried
tomatoes had led many to surmise it was a wasteland, consumed by an
overabundance of metals.
In May, Ruffner Mountain naturalist Alan Yester discovered otherwise.
"First, I found a couple of salamanders that hadn't been documented on
Ruffner Mountain," Yester said. "Probably a few weeks after that I discovered
there were narrow-mouth toads that were breeding at the lake. Really
cool-looking. They eat ants."
Samford University professor Mike Howell and his biology students also made
similar discoveries in May.
"It's a pond all the biologists are raving about," Howell said. "We should be
excited to have it in Jefferson County. It gives Ruffner something to brag
about."
During a recent visit, Howell tramped into the pond, dragging a net for a few
yards before pulling it up, revealing dozens of tadpoles and bugs.
"The life is so abundant -- the tadpoles, the salamander larvae," Howell
said. "It's just an amazing protein source."
Randall Haddock, Cahaba River Society field director, was in awe of nature's
ability to adapt to extreme conditions.
"It's just a sense of reverence," Haddock said, "at the way the living world
is."
The pond sits on the eastern side of the 1,011-acre park and was used more
than a half-century ago as a settling pond for mining iron ore. That's what
gives it the red color.
The pond is part of 34 acres Sloss Industries is donating to Ruffner as part
of a restitution package over pollution in Five Mile Creek. Ruffner naturalists
knew of the pond for years.
"We thought it was a biological desert," said Marty Schulman, a Ruffner
Mountain naturalist.
Some naturalists describe the pond as vernal, ephemeral and impermanent. That
means the pond is a temporary water body with no fixed source, such as a spring,
and expands and contracts its banks based on the amount of rainfall.
During the May rains, the pond was twice its current size of about 20,000
square feet. Schulman can remember one time the pond was bone dry, during the
2000 drought. That lasted for a week.
"I think they've found an ecological setting that works for them," Howell
said of the wildlife. "If it was permanent, once the fish come, most of these
other things go."
One reason the inhabitants thrive is that the pond is not connected to any
other body of water. Predators such as fish can't swim into the pond and scoop
up the burgeoning life for an early-morning snack.
They did find recently two banded water snakes that feed on tadpoles.
"It's OK," Howell said. "It's nature."
Naturalists at first were concerned that high levels of iron and possibly
arsenic would affect the animals. The field work, though, hasn't raised alarms.
"No arms growing out of heads," Schulman said.
Ruffner naturalists so far have documented 16 species of amphibians in the
pond, including salamanders, tadpoles and frogs. They also found fairy shrimp, a
backstroking crustacean, that thrives in the pond.
Howell placed a few of the shrimp in his clear photographic tank that allowed
for a better look.
"These are the coolest things you've ever seen," Howell said. "The female is
brightly colored with greens, reds and yellows. The male is just white and
colorless, just the reverse of what we would expect from nature."
The near-translucent shrimp, about as long as a thumbnail, are much tinier
than their cousins served with cocktail sauce. They swim on their backs with
legs fluttering rhythmically toward the sky.
Five species of fairy shrimp are listed on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Web site as threatened or endangered. The newly discovered fairy shrimp at
Ruffner haven't been identified to the species level.
Howell said that, after 40 years of splashing through Alabama waters, "this
is my first time encountering the fairy shrimp."
The shrimp are extremophiles, Howell said, animals that live in extreme
conditions. Their eggs can stay for years in the fissures of mud before the
conditions are ripe for hatching.
Similar shrimp flourish in the Great Salt Lake in Utah and Mono Lake in
California, which, like the Ruffner pond, also have high saltwater levels and no
fish.
"This is a little Great Salt Lake," Howell said.
Along with few predators, Howell added that the amphibians probably thrive
because the area hasn't been sprayed with pesticides.
"Amphibians are among the most sensitive order around," Howell said. "They
are sensitive to herbicides."
Yester said he sees a lesson of nature's resiliency thriving in the red
water.
"Things might not be as messed up as we thought," he said. "It shows if we
keep our hands off for some time, it can heal itself and come back and have a
richness and diversity of wildlife."
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