Ponds naturally eutrophy into marshes and forests unless interrupted.

Evidence

The word ecology is derived from the Greek oikos, the word for home. I could use ecology to make a good home for goslings and girls. … Like many an old farm pond, mine was the victim of eutrophication, the natural process of nutrient enrichment that comes with age. Generations of algae and lily pads and fallen leaves and autumn’s apples falling into the pond built up the sediments, layering the once clean gravel at the bottom in a sheet of muck. All those nutrients fueled the growth of new plants, which fueled the growth of more new plants, in an accelerating cycle. This is the way for many ponds—the bottom gradually fills in until the pond becomes a marsh and maybe someday a meadow and then a forest. Ponds grow old, and though I will too, I like the ecological idea of aging as progressive enrichment, rather than progressive loss. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 289

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines eutrophication and oikos in concrete, sensory terms instead of abstract definition.
• CANDY: Ponds aging into meadows and forests, framed as progressive enrichment, is a light and shareable reframe.