ponds, lakes and streams in agricultural regiosn or near where a lot of people live will someitmes have such an enormous density of algae that the water turns a bright green. why does algae become so abundat in these kinds of environments?

well um, algae blooms will happen there there is a lot of nutrients (mainly phosphorus) in the environment. Which can be the result of polution, fertilizer runoff, etc. I forget really but I'm pretty sure that's right

thanks man

Yes, it's largely a result of the runoff that occurs from the abundance of impermeable surfaces in urban areas. When it rains the runoff brings with it nutrients like nitrogen and phosphates with when they go into ponds, lakes etc create algae and algal blooms if it's bad enough.

nailed it.

i live in kansas where the creeks run dry parts of the summer. wjhen they run the fill our (manmade) pond with shit. the shit not only feeds the algae, it actually creates cracks down under the pond, eventually creating leaks under the dam. basically you dig a pond, keep for 20 years, then bulldoze the dam. after 5 years of allowing the soil to recover you build another dam.

This post was edited by juliusjuice on Mar 31 2010 10:37pm

b/c when sunlight hits it algae starts growing there i know b/c i have a fish tank i have to use light bulb for algae to not come