permaculture

["Kevin Topek" <ktopek@houston.rr.com>]

Claude,

Wetland plant roots provide conduits for air, which includes oxygen, to
enter the soil. During the day the plants produce oxygen and at night they
use it in respiration. A pond without plants is not healthy. "Invasives" are
merely aggressive successional species that colonize disturbed areas. The
only time plants rob oxygen is when they die and rot in an aerobic fashion.
The cycling between aerobic and anaerobic states is the point of a wetland.
What is the issue for the municipal biologist. Does she want to plant other
plants there? It is not about species, but function.

Kevin & Dr. Bitchface (Mindy)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Claude William Genest" <genest@pivot.net>
To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 6:28 AM
Subject: [permaculture] reeds & Oxygen


> Hi All,
>
> Can anyone tell me to to what extent reeds either add or remove oxygen
> from a pond ? I am meeting with a municipal biologist next week who is
> hell bent on removing ALL the  reeds around a pond and her principal
> arguments are that this must be done because the reeds are "invasive"
> and deplete oxygen - I thought the roots pumped out oxygen allowing a
> place for water purifying bacteria to live ?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Claude
>
> _______________________________________________
> permaculture mailing list
> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture