I watched a neighborhood pond go from clear to green slime in just 3 days after a heatwave hit last August

Turns out the runoff from lawns getting fertilized right before a rainstorm is what kicked it off, has anyone else noticed their local water sources going bad faster than usual this year?

3 comments

3 Comments

lee.cora13d ago

Yeah but also, think about what else changed - the heatwave probably zapped the oxygen levels in the pond before the fertilizer even hit. Warm water holds way less oxygen than cool water, so the fish and bugs that normally eat algae were already stressed or dying off. Then that fertilizer runoff showed up and it was like a buffet with no customers (you know, the little critters that keep things balanced). I swear, my parents' farm pond did the same thing a couple summers ago - the algae took over before anything could stop it because the food web was already broken from the heat. It's not just the slime that's the problem, it's that the pond's whole defense system gets wrecked first.

keith16414d ago

Hmm I dunno, my local creek has looked the same for years honestly. Maybe the green slime is just part of the natural cycle after a hot spell lol.

kimblack13d ago

Wait, you've actually seen green slime before and just figured it was normal? That stuff's usually bad news around here...