Abstract: | Ponds and pools are among the most vulnerable and less studied habitat types worldwide (Williams 1987, King 1998, Wood et al. 2003), but awareness of their biodiversity-conservation, scientific, cultural and educational value increases (Boothby 1999, Nicolet et al. 2004, De Meester et al. 2005 and references within). In Romania there are virtually no studies on their ecology except the papers of Bãnãrescu (1970, 1995) who suggested their protection. Although some ponds, especially alpine ponds are situated on protected areas (Demeter and Mori 2004), there are no areas in Romania protected specifically for ponds.
The Ciuc Basin is one of the large tectonic mountain basins of the Eastern Carpathians (60x20 km) (Kristó 1957, 2002) characterized by a cold and humid climate, low amount of precipitation (600 mm yearly average) and low evapotranspiration values. It consists of three sub-units, the Upper, Middle and Lower Ciuc Basin (from North to South). The low altitude areas of basin, with a mean altitude of 650 m, are very rich in wetland habitats. More than 150 small water bodies have been surveyed in a recent study, and the total number may be several times larger (Demeter et al. 2006). Low altitude ponds of natural origin in this area can be divided into floodplain ponds and higher altitude ponds, situated mainly on the second terraces (Demeter 2005) but also on the alluvial fans. For convenience, we name these as “terrace ponds” in the following. Here we (1) present preliminary data on the morphology and distribution of terrace ponds, (2) give a list of some characteristic floral and faunal elements, and (3) put forward hypotheses on the origin of terrace ponds. |
