Since our visits to the creek and the duck-weed pond late last year, I've kept a container of the water with some of the aquatic plants in it as a sort of aquarium with whatever creatures are living in it. I covered the containers and left them outside for about 2 months. Additionally, I collected a handful of dry vernal pool soil and added dechloronated water to it to see what might appear. This is our third dry year of drought in California and it makes me wonder what can survive these conditions and how. A couple nights ago, I brought these samples in and spent several hours looking at them under a microscope. Here is a video of the creatures I found in the drops of water and bottom debris on a standard size glass slide. You can see them with the naked eye and, for the record, none of the creatures I've been able to identify, including the flatworm, are parastic. I have, however, seen leeches in the creek so that's not to say there isn't anything parasitic there.
Here's a closer look:
Clam Shrimp (conchostraca)
Unidentified hairy sac The similarity in shape makes me wonder if it isn't a molt or an egg casing of the clam shrimp
Aelosoma
Cyclopoid Copepod
This is hardly visible, but it is a clear worm - unidentified
This creature, a gastrotrich, was found in the vernal pool soil that I added water to. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, gastrotrich lay "opsiblastic" eggs, which remain inactive for long periods and can survive dry and freezing conditions. Certainly explains things doesn't it?
gastrotrich
Here is a video showing the movement of these creatures - some are squinchy, some are frenzied, some are seeking - all very interesting and unique. A whole world we obliviously step right through on our hikes!
A short hike up vista trail there is a spectacular 360 degree view of South Orange County.
And just beyond it lies a vernal pool, well, an empty one right now. But how interesting the patch of color in the middle of it. You can see the weeds grew only in the centermost shallow area. It has been dry for at least two years from what I can tell. But we can recall a few years back when the rains must have been generous and it teemed with life (see the video at the end).
For contrast, here's what it looked like earlier in March of this year.
I think the frogs estivate here. But I wonder if they can live for so many years without their pool to return to. I know there has been some rain, but not enough for tadpoles. I keep being hopeful that the next rain will fill it, and think of the frogs and hike up there only to find it empty still.
Well, colorful weeds were a good second best option.
I wonder why they are here now, and not before. I wonder if they will stay now that they are here, even if it fills with water.
There are bunches of tiny white snail shells along the edge.
Birds flit in an out of the shrubbery along the western edge of the dry pool, perhaps waiting like us for our vernal pool to return.
Here's a video from November, 2009 when the pool was full.
