Ecology
Lake Ecosystems
Hawker Lake is primarily a Fresh water lake believed to be fed by a spring. It is not technically Part of the Rockingham Lakes Regional Parklands but is certainly part of the same same watercourses. Hakwer Lake is unique in that it is the remnants of a very old sea water harbour once called “Peel Harbour”. Ships used to come into the harbour in the early 1800’s to load timber but then the entrance silted up and it became marshland until it was refurbished and dug out to allow for housing development to spring up around it.
A copy of the Rockingham Lakes Mgmt Plan can be viewed here if you want some more information.
(From Wikipedia)
Lake Ecosystem
The ecosystem of a lake includes biotic (living) plants, animals and micro-organisms, as well as abiotic (nonliving) physical and chemical interactions.[1]
Lake ecosystems are a prime examples of lentic ecosystems. Lentic refers to standing or relatively still water, from the Latin lentus, which means sluggish. Lentic waters range from ponds to lakes to wetlands, and much of this article applies to lentic ecosystems in general. Lentic ecosystems can be compared with lotic ecosystems, which involve flowing terrestrial waters such as rivers and streams. Together, these two fields form the more general study area of freshwater or aquatic ecology.
Lentic systems are diverse, ranging from a small, temporary rainwater pool a few inches deep to Lake Baikal, which has a maximum depth of 1740 m.[2] The general distinction between pools/ponds and lakes is vague, but Brown[1] states that ponds and pools have their entire bottom surfaces exposed to light, while lakes do not. In addition, some lakes become seasonally stratified (discussed in more detail below.) Ponds and pools have two regions: the pelagic open water zone, and the benthic zone, which comprises the bottom and shore regions. Since lakes have deep bottom regions not exposed to light, these systems have an additional zone, the profundal.[3] These three areas can have very different abiotic conditions and, hence, host species that are specifically adapted to live there.[1]