Surrounded by fairy shrimp, a spotted salamander lays eggs in a vernal pool in Maryland.
Like magic, these habitats disappear and reappear each spring
Vernal pools are a hallmark of spring—and many animals, including fairy shrimp, depend on them for survival.
Ponds that vanish and reappear, animals that go dormant and return to life—vernal pools feel a bit like spring magic, but they’re 100 percent real.
These ephemeral habitats, found along the U.S. West Coast and throughout the Northeast and Midwest, form in natural depressions that have suitable soil for holding water. (See our beautiful photos of spring landscapes.)
They’re unconnected to streams or other water sources, filling up with rain or melted snow in spring and evaporating in summer, usually by July.
“The first time I saw a vernal pool, I was walking through the woods and saw the clouds reflecting from the forest floor,” Evan Grant, a research wildlife biologist with the Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative of the
