It's all about the bugs
Insects they are not the most loved out of all the animals that share our home, but they are arguably one of the most important. They are great ecological indicators of the health of various ecosystems and habitats. The decline or increase of insect populations has profound effects on many ecosystems around the world. To try to show how important insects are to the health of many habitats allow me to use the pond in the above photo to shed some light on this subject.
The above pond is located towards the bottom of my garden and through a series of pond dips I have found that it is home to a surprisingly rich variety of wildlife. Currently inhabiting this pond are 5 Gold fish (Carassius auratus), much to my surprise offspring or fry as baby fish are called began to appear this June. This tells us that the pond habitat is healthy and rich enough in resources to allow the reproduction of the resident goldfish. Therefore other than the handful of fish food pellets fed to them every other day what food source is plentiful enough to support both adult and fry goldfish. The answer lays in the topic of this very article which highlights the importance of aquatic creepy crawlies.
The young fish were feeding on various aquatic invertebrates such as water boatman (Corixidae) and damsel fly larvae (Zygoptera) among other aquatic insects. This shows that the aquatic pond environment in this habitat is healthy and able to support at least two known species of insect. They in turn provide food for larger aquatic species such as fish, allowing them the nutrients they need to breed. I also noticed adult damsel flies breeding above the waters surface, perched on the vegetation overhanging the pond (see picture). This would not be possible if the pond habitat itself was unhealthy. Further more the water boatman feed on algae where as damsel fly larvae feed on a host of aquatic insects and even tadpoles. The presence of both insects based on their diets suggests that the pond has a healthy supply of algae as well as large populations of other aquatic invertebrates.
Algae is essential for a healthy pond and allows microscopic creatures such as zooplankton to feed on it, which in turn support further creatures such as fish.
This means that the basic requirements for a healthy pond food chain are currently present in this environment. If this wasn't good enough upon further exploration I soon observed several other species of aquatic animal entering the pond. These were the common frog (Rana temporaria), the smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris) and the grass snake (Natrix natrix). The presence of these wild animal species along with the reproductive success of the introduced fish would not be possible if the insects were not occupying the habitat.
To conclude readers insects both aquatic and land are important to a whole host of larger creatures. They help maintain ecosystems as well as being a valuable source of food for several other animal species. Without insects or zoo plankton present in the environment, it is unlikely the fish in the pond would be able to survive. Therefore the next time you see a spider in the bath tub or a fly buzzing against your window, hold back the bug spray they are more important than they may appear.
If you want some further reading around this subject then access google scholar and type in the paper below.
Barman, B., & Gupta, S. (2015). Aquatic insects as bio-indicator of water quality-A study on Bakuamari stream, Chakras hila Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam, North East India. Journal of Entomology and Zoology Studies, 3(3), 178-186.