This one shows how the areas of ponds varies between years and seasons at a site on the Bay, in particular the effects of extreme weather
Our autumn has been peculiarly warm, disconcertingly so. The fog is clammy rather than cold and there have been very few days when any wind strong enough to have shaken the leaves down. Instead I have stood in Newcastle and listened to the crisp patter of aspen leaves falling so neatly and gently you’d think it was a cheesy CGI effect. Unusual weather seems to be the norm.
The example in the graph is from up on Druridge Bay at Blakemoor Farm. Every November and May between 2010 and 2013 I walked a zig zag route across the Blakemoor fields, a nine mile trek to find every pond and wetland down to the smallest pools of around 1m2. Their areas were measured and in the graph you can see the total area for ponds in four types of fields The black area is the ponds in amongst the dune grassland, the dark grey from the arable fields or cereal and oil seed rape, the pale grey from permanent pasture and the white the area of ponds in amongst natural wetland. In all four cases the areas change markedly with the local rainfall. Over the three years of walking back and forth the Bay was hit by a distinct sequence of extreme weather; unusual drought from 2009 to March of 2012, then sudden and sustained rainfall resulting in a record breaking wet year and finally a 2013 heat-wave.
Much of the contemporary work on pond has been spurred by
concerns at the loss of ponds from the British landscape over the last 100
years. The seasonal change at Blakemoor show a more complicated story, even the
suggestion that extreme wet year can be good for the pondscape. However the
damp and cold probably did more harm throughout the summer than any benefit
provide by more and larger ponds.
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