Blooming Algae

This lesson provides a lab based activity that looks at the effect of phosporous and nitrogen on the growth of algae.

Ponds are fragile habitats where nutrients for the most part are limited. A small increase in nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous can quickly lead to an increase in algae and summer algal blooms. This might be good for the algae but it is not necessarily beneficial for everything else in the pond.

Resources

• Powerpoint presentation (also available as a pdf file)
• Teachers’ notes to support the presentation
• Short video about ponds