PONDS – OVAL, CIRCULAR AND RING-SHAPED STRUCTURES IN THE LANDSCAPE Oval, circular and ring-shaped structures in nature often attract attention, arouse curiosity and tickle the imagination. They can be found on Earth’s surface in the form of craters and volcanic lakes in areas of volcanic activity, pingos and peatland pools in northern regions, coral atolls in tropical regions, and small, circular islands in many other parts of the world. It is also common for many of the typical phenomena of karst regions to have round shapes. These include round and oval openings to underground karst structures, karst springs and, in particular, karst sinkholes that often have a round or oval shape. In most cases, ponds were made by people, usually in natural cavities in the karst terrain, and following the structures of the cavities, they gave the ponds a more or less circular shape. The circular and ring-shaped structure of the ponds is made more distinctive and unusual with the building of drystone fences to encircle them. The landscape becomes even more dramatic when the pond is intersected by drystone fences from a number of pastures. A beautiful example is Diviška Pond near Baška. The pond is located on a rocky plateau close to the cliffs of Krk Island’s north-eastern coast, at the very edge of a protected ornithological reserve. The pond is intersected by drystone fences from five pastures, allowing sheep separate access to fresh water. Note: In one of our earlier reports, we wrote about the round-shaped Hahlić ponds in the Obruč Mountain Cluster that rises above Grobnik Plain. The shores of these ponds still show traces of drystone fences that skilful builders had created in the past (see: HAHLIĆ – AN EXAMPLE OF A SPRING-FED POND / http://www.ju-priroda.hr/zanimljivosti.asp?iddb=78 /). Category: landscape, ponds Keywords: Diviška Pond, Krk Island, circular structures in the landscape, drystone fences Marko Randić
Conservation and Promotion of Aquatic Biotopes – Ponds and Marsh Pools – For the Future – LOKNA The aim of the Project for the Conservation and Promotion of Aquatic Biotopes – Ponds and Marsh Pools – For the Future (Project LOKNA) is the conservation and revitalisation of aquatic biotopes (ponds on Krk Island and marsh pools in the Ljubljana Marsh) through a joint cross-border approach to valorising, taking inventories of, revitalising and promoting aquatic biotopes. Sunčica Strišković This is the link to the Internet page of the 2007-2013 Slovenia-Croatia Operational Programme:
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