Salt Evaporation Pond - Algae and Colour of Evaporation Ponds

Algae and Colour of Evaporation Ponds

Due to variable algal concentrations, vivid colors – from pale green to bright red – are created in the evaporation ponds. The color indicates the salinity of the ponds. Microorganisms change their hues as the salinity of the pond increases. In low- to mid-salinity ponds, green algae such as Dunaliella salina are predominant, although these algae can also take on an orange hue. In middle- to high-salinity ponds, Halobacteria, which is actually a group of halophilic Archaea (sometimes called Haloarchaea), shift the colour to pink, red and orange. Other bacteria such as Stichococcus also contribute tints.

Read more about this topic:  Salt Evaporation Pond

Famous quotes containing the words algae, colour and/or ponds:

    there, where you live,
    live:
    start over,
    everyman, with
    the algae of your dreams.
    Denise Levertov (b. 1923)

    There’s no man may look upon her, no man,
    As when newly grown to be a woman,
    Tall and noble but with face and bosom
    Delicate in colour as apple blossom.
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    Every incident connected with the breaking up of the rivers and ponds and the settling of the weather is particularly interesting to us who live in a climate of so great extremes. When the warmer days come, they who dwell near the river hear the ice crack at night with a startling whoop as loud as artillery, as if its icy fetters were rent from end to end, and within a few days see it rapidly going out. So the alligator comes out of the mud with quakings of the earth.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)