Progress in understanding Didymo

[barbless]

June 2, 2011 article:

http://www.agu.org/news/press/pr_archives/2011/2011-20.shtml

To summarize: didymo blooms in oligotrophic (low-nutrient, clear coldwater) streams because it is aided by some species of 'helper' bacteria to concentrate the small amount of phosphate nutrients in the water. Then when the first stalks die and decay, they and the bacteria provide even more plant food to the new didymo growth, until it blooms into large mats that cover parts of the stream bottom.

So hopefully there's a way to interrupt or undermine that cycle without doing more harm than good.

 

[barbless]

edit: on re-reading, I guess the first stalks don't die- they just make a home for the bacteria, which act like little phosphate fertilizer factories by concentrating the nutrients in the water, leading to new growth that eventually causes a bloom.

 

[jdaddy]

Pretty interesting.

Wonder why they state that didymo thrives in non-fertile waters, yet can be found in very fertile tail waters?

 

[TUNA]

Thanks for the info

 

[barbless]

jdaddy, as I understand it, didymo can live in various types of water. But it causes it's worst problems in the infertile waters, due to that special ability to concentrate the small amounts of nutrients in the water in symbiosis with the bacteria. That's what leads to those carpeting blooms.

I'm not sure that didymo is able to carve out as much of a harmful & monopolizing ecological niche in fertile waters, due to all of the other competition from the richer array of plant life found in the higher- nutrient streams.