Pond data: physical, chemical, and biological characteristics with scientific and United States of America state definitions from literature and legislative surveys

Ponds are often identified by their small size and shallow depths, but the lack of a universal definition hampers science and weakens legal protection. In order to determine a working definition of ‘pond’, we conducted a literature search for scientific definitions, a U.S. state survey for management definitions, and looked at pond ecosystem function using data from the literature search. Our dataset includes physical, chemical, and biological data for 1327 waterbodies ≤ 20 ha in surface area and ≤ 9 m in maximum or mean depth from our literature review. These data have a global distribution, we include a table of latitudes and longitudes, and span many years (1946-2019). We have also included a table of 54 pond definitions from the literature review and a table of U.S. state definitions of ponds, wetlands, and lakes resulting from our survey.