Monday, August 11, 2008

How's the water?


Algae blooms are a fact of Chesapeake Bay summers. And they are arguably the Chesapeake's chief problem. Algae is always present in the water, but the autotrophic buggers take off when they find a little extra nitrogen and phosphorus in the water. They "bloom," though it's not as nice as it sounds, and when they die their decomposing material sucks oxygen from the water, depriving the rest of the fish and crabs and plants of what they need.

But even those of us who live near the water, how often do you see this happening? Here's a great shot from the Baltimore Sun, and reporter Stephen Kiehl's story on a bloom in Baltimore County.

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