Ice Age Ghost Ponds: The role of buried wetland deposits in rare aquatic plant conservation

To investigate long-term plant propagule viability in ghost pingo pond sediments and ascertain the potential of resurrected pingo ponds for wetland plant conservation

Ice age ponds formed in the early Holocene. Those in the Norfolk Brecklands, Eastern England, support biodiverse communities, although many were filled in during the 19th century. The buried sediments of these "ghost" ice age ponds (GIAPs) contain seeds and oospores of aquatic plants, which can remain viable for centuries, as seen in younger artificial farmland ponds. These seed banks allow for wetland plant dispersal over time, offering exciting conservation potential. Resurrecting GIAPs could reintroduce rare and even nationally extinct species to the landscape without laboratory interventions and translocations, simply through habitat management.
Over the past four years, the UCL Pond Restoration Research Group has resurrected 20 infilled ice age ponds, restoring species-rich ponds and associated freshwater species. This PhD covers findings from macrophyte surveys conducted each summer for three years post-resurrection across GIAPs on Norfolk farmland, analysis of macrofossils in sediments deposited from 11,000 years bp to 150 years bp to illustrate assemblage change over time, and the conduction of germination experiments to establish viability and longevity of macrophytes.