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Re: Cyano Preliminary Results



>From: "Dixon, Steven T. (Exchange)" <stdixon at ben_bechtel.com>
>Subject: Cyano Preliminary Results/long
>
>
>First and foremost, green water and cyanobacteria are completely
>different animals. <G>  What we refer to as green water is not bacteria
>at all, but unicellular algae.  Karen pointed this out last week,
>apparently to no avail. 

Green water and cyanobacteria are not necessarily different. Some "green"
water _can_ be caused by unicellular species of cyanobacteria (blue green
algae). The blue green algae that we usually think about is Oscillatoria
and Lyngbya (the stuff which forms sheets). But there are also planktonic
blue green algae. According to Wetzel, these are mostly members of one
family -the coccoids (e.g. Anacystis, Gomphosphaeria and Coccochloris).
Cyanobacteria come in a range of colors including green and blue-green.
Here is a nice microscopic picture of unicellular stuff... and it looks
green to me.
http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/eubacteria/cyanobacteria/cyanobacteria.html

I checked another reference (Smith, Fresh Water Algae of the United
States). This is what he says about Microcystis (=Anacystis): "Microcystis
is essentially a planktonic genus and one that often causes 'water blooms'
in hard water lakes."  I have also read elsewhere that planktonic algae can
cause the water to appear green or brown.

Neil