The alliance Eleocharition ovatae occurs on exposed bottoms of fishponds and fish storage ponds, sediment accumulations along rivers, exposed banks of oxbows, lakes and water reservoirs. The substrate is usually mud, often rich in humus, but also gravel or sand. During seed germination the habitat is saturated with water or flooded by very shallow water, and it slowly dries out. In the period of flowering and seed ripening it is slightly wet or dry near the surface. This alliance is most common in central Europe, particularly in fishpond areas in basins and mid-altitude areas of the Bohemian Massif, but it also occurs in other parts of Eurasia. In the Czech Republic this type of vegetation used to be more common in the past when summer draining of fishponds at regular intervals of a few years was a part of fishpond management.