Algal bloom

An algal bloom is a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae (typically microscopic) in a water system. Cyanobacteria blooms are often called blue-green algae. Algal blooms may occur in freshwater as well as marine environments. Typically, only one or a small number of phytoplankton species are involved, and some blooms may be recognized by discoloration of the water resulting from the high density of pigmented cells.

Blooming

Since 'algae' is a broad term including organisms of widely varying sizes, growth rates and nutrient requirements, there is no officially recognized threshold level as to what is defined as a bloom. For some species, algae can be considered to be blooming at concentrations reaching millions of cells per milliliter, while others form blooms of tens of thousands of cells per liter. The photosynthetic pigments in the algal cells determine the color of the algal bloom, and are thus often a greenish color, but they can also be a wide variety of other colors such as yellow, brown or red, depending on the species of algae and the type of pigments contained therein.