''Schlatt'' or ''Flatt'' is the Lower Saxon name for a heathland pond, an undrained body of water usually shallow, that is fed by

surface water Surface water is water located on top of land forming terrestrial (inland) waterbodies, and may also be referred to as ''blue water'', opposed to the seawater and waterbodies like the ocean. The vast majority of surface water is produced by prec ...

and is largely unaffected by

ground water Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...

. The water is impounded by a water-retentive layer. Most ''Schlatts'' can dry out from time to time. ''Schlatts'' are characteristic of the nutrient-poor

geest Geest is a type of landform, slightly raised above the surrounding countryside, that occurs on the plains of Northern Germany, the Northern Netherlands and Denmark. It is a landscape of sandy and gravelly soils formed as a glacial outwash plai ...

ridges of the

North German Plain The North German Plain or Northern Lowland (german: Norddeutsches Tiefland) is one of the major geographical regions of Germany. It is the German part of the North European Plain. The region is bounded by the coasts of the North Sea and the Balti ...

. Most of them were formed as wind-blown hollows in the

periglacial Periglaciation (adjective: "periglacial", also referring to places at the edges of glacial areas) describes geomorphic processes that result from seasonal thawing of snow in areas of permafrost, the runoff from which refreezes in ice wedges and o ...

region of the last ice age. The term is of Lower Saxon origin and is used mainly for the ponds in that part of Germany. In the district of

Diepholz Diepholz (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Deefholt'') is a town and capital of the district of Diepholz in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the rivers Hunte and Lohne, approximately 45 km northeast of Osnabrück, and 60 km southwest of ...

(

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

) the Conservation Foundation (''Stiftung Naturschutz'') has taken upon itself the preservation of ''Schlatts'' as part of a ''Schlatt'' programme. Using volunteers working with the land owners and farmers over 300 small ponds and ''Schlatts'' have been cleaned up and maintained in order to preserve them as habitats for threatened animal and plant species.

Sources

Literature

Jan Höper: ''Flora und Vegetation von Kleingewässern in landwirtschaftlich genutzten Bereichen des Landkreises Diepholz.'' Diplomarbeit, Göttingen 1999, 129 S. Georg Müller: "Was ist ein Schlatt", Entstehung-Entwicklung-Zustand und rechtliche Hinweise. Broschüre 16 Seiten, Ganderkesee 2009 www.wallhecke.de

External links

''Schlatt'' programme

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