Seasonal and diurnal changes in the water temperature of a temperate pond (England) and a tropical pond (Kenya)

✍ Scribed by Johnstone O. Young

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1975
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 647 KB
• Volume: 47
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1573-5141
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00039595

✦ Synopsis

Seasonal changes in water temperatures, embracing periods of low, rising, high and declining temperatures, were recorded in both a temperate and a tropical pond. In the course of a year, the range between the lowest and highest average weekly temperatures was greater in the temperate pond. The spans between the average minimum and the average maximum weekly water temperatures in the warmest months of the year in the tropical pond were greater than those found at any time of the year in the temperate pond. The average weekly air and water temperatures showed the same pattern of seasonal fluctuations; in the tropical pond the average weekly air temperatures were always less than the average minimum weekly water temperatures, whereas they were below, within or above the spans between the average minimum and average maximum weekly aquatic temperatures, according to the time of year~ in the temperate pond.

In both ponds, diurnal fluctuations were absent during the cooler months; the amplitudes of the fluctuations in the warmer months varied according to the time of year, and were greater, during the warmest months, in the tropical pond. In both ponds lowest temperatures were recorded sometime between 0200 and 1000 hours and highest between 1200 and 2000 hours.

The influence of temperature on the life-cycles of invertebrates in both ponds is discussed briefly.