Toxic blue-green algae blooms, or cyanobacteria, are a growing problem in Ohio’s lakes, and grabbed the attention of the whole country after the bacteria shut down Toledo’s water system last summer . A new study funded by the National Science Foundation and published today in the journal Ecosphere shows that what creates good conditions for the blue-green bacteria might sometimes be the bacteria themselves. Past research has already shown that cyanobacteria can essentially process and create nitrogen and phosphorous; the nutrients then become available to other organisms by leaking or when the bacteria die off and release them. Nitrogen and phosphorous might already be in excess in lakes because of fertilizer and sewer runoff, but as cyanobacteria create even more, that in turn encourages more of the toxic green slime to grow. Some cyanobacteria are capable of processing nitrogen from the air, or phosphorous from underwater sediments, into forms that are available to other organisms.
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