What’s up with algae?

 

“Yuck Mom, what’s all that stuff floating in the water? It looks gross!” These are the words I heard at Jacob’s Well the other day from a 10 year-old in his bathing suit. I admired his bravery for swimming in March’s weather, still too cold for many.  I too wondered what was up with the algae.  

Well, as it turns-out the green algae “blooms” are totally natural and are proliferating due to warm weather, lots of sunlight for the creek, and high nutrients in the water. Mateo Scoggins with the City of Austin’s Surface Water Team in their Watershed Protection Department told me that what we are seeing is probably a combination of Cladaphorales (the slimy kind that looks like wet wool), Spirogyra, and the ones under the water’s surface Charales.  “It’s blooming everywhere in Austin’s creeks and streams too, in large quantities, and in place we don’t typically see it this time of year,” Mateo said.  These same algae are documented extensively for Barton Creek and the Barton Springs.    

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