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
Water permeates the karstified Sengsen and Hintergebirge mountains both underground and above ground. At the interface between the underground aquifer and surface waters lies the unique habitat of the spring. Over 800 springs are known and documented in the national park. Particularly impressive are the giant karst springs, such as those in the Vorderen Rettenbach and Hinteren Rettenbach, which drain the Sengsengebirge. During snowmelt and high water, their flow can reach several thousand liters per second.
But it’s also worth taking a closer look: spring snails are Ice Age relics just a few millimeters in size; in the cold spring water, they graze on algae deposits on stones. Alongside them, predatory stonefly larvae, freshwater mites, a wide variety of crustaceans, and many other organisms thrive.
Brooks
Two stream systems define the national park area: the Großer Bach in Reichraminger Hintergebirge the Krumme Steyrling.
For centuries, the streams Kalkalpen National Park the Kalkalpen National Park served primarily as transport routes for timber rafting. Today, the natural, free-flowing stretches are highly dynamic habitats where dippers, kingfishers, otters, and crayfish thrive. Beavers have also returned.
In the Großer Bach, upstream of the Große Klause, the non-native rainbow trout has been systematically removed. This has created Austria’s longest rainbow trout-free river system. Here, the rare Danube-origin brown trout still finds a home.
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.
