What Causes Blue Green Algae?
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Blue Green Algae
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Blue green algae is also referred to as Cyanobacteria. What they essentially are is a group of bacteria that can create their own food through photosynthesis. Usually called pond scum, blue green algae can grow in lakes, ponds and slow moving streams. Wherever there is a body of water with the proper nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorous, Cyanobacteria will grow. While they are called blue green algae, Cyanobacteria may also come in a wide variety of colors. They can be blue, green, brown or even reddish-purple.
Cause
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Cyanobacteria, like true "green" algae, are caused by cellular division. A single blue green alga is a one-celled organism that can make its own food and reproduce. This means that as long as even a small number of these blue green algae are in a slow moving body of water where resources are plentiful, they will reproduce and multiply. When blue green algae can actually be seen clumping together, that is the result of hundreds of millions of them all clinging together. Oftentimes this is referred to as an algal bloom.
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Algal Bloom
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An algal bloom is the thick scum of algae on the surface of a body of water. It may seem as if these blooms, which weren't there before, can appear overnight with blue green algae. In fact an algal bloom is the result of overly plentiful resources, which the blue green algae simply devour to make more of themselves. Additionally, many blue green algae can control their buoyancy so that they're at a certain depth in the water. When the sun goes down, they lose that ability and float to the surface. This causes the previously invisible blue green algae to clump together in an algal bloom across the surface of the water literally overnight.
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