Life givers and living spaces
Springs, streams and still waters
In addition to its unique forest wilderness, Kalkalpen National Park is home to numerous treasures. One of these is water. It flows through the national park area in countless veins and shapes the unique landscape decisively and in many different ways. In Reichraminger Hintergebirge there are dolomite gorges and mountain streams with more than 800 springs, which together form the longest intact stream ecosystem in the Eastern Alps and, together with the underground karst water system, were decisive for the nomination as a Ramsar conservation area.
Sources
As a karst area, the national park is richly endowed with springs. More than 800 are known and documented in the national park.
The spring is the point where groundwater comes to the surface. Springs are the transition from the subterranean elevation system to the surface. The springs in the national park are characterized only by uniform, cool water temperatures. The water flow varies with the different types of springs. It is a few milliliters per second for seepage springs and several cubic meters per second for karst giant springs during floods. Springs represent unique habitats inhabited by highly specialized animals and plants that can only survive in them.
Brooks
The national park has more than 80 km of streams and a further 400 km of channels and ditches with only a temporary water supply. The streams are not untouched as they were once used mainly for logging. The majority of their course is near-natural, as natural dynamics are largely permitted.
The characteristic stream system of the Reichraminger Hintergebirge is that of the Großer Bach with its dolomite gorges. It flows into the Enns near Reichraming. Above the Große Klause, the non-native rainbow trout was systematically fished out. This resulted in the longest rainbow trout-free river system in Austria. On the border between the Hintergebirge mountains Sengsengebirge , the Krumme Steyrling flows into the Steyr as the second large stream system in the national park.
Still waters in the Kalkalpen National Park
Lakes and ponds
There is only one real lake at Kalkalpen National Park , the Große Feichtausee at Sengsengebirge. The adjacent Kleine Feichtausee and the Herzerlsee are considered ponds, as they are too shallow and shallow. There are also countless other ponds and pools. They are an important habitat for many rare insects and amphibians. The national park is therefore a very important habitat for amphibians in particular.
Swamps and bogs
Swamps and bogs are habitats in which the soil is more or less saturated with stagnant water. When renewable biomass is no longer degraded due to a lack of oxygen, peat is produced from it. Peat formation is the main difference between bogs and swamps, where the water level is only periodically so high that humus degradation does not occur. Due to the accumulation of peat, the surface of living peatlands grows upwards. It takes about 3,000 to 10,000 years to build up a layer of peat about 3 meters high, depending on the location. The community of peatland organisms has adapted to the extreme conditions through specialisation. They are particularly sensitive to changing environmental factors. Therefore, peatlands are among the endangered ecosystems, because every intervention leads to irreversible changes.
