Algae

There are a lot of algae in the world, but we just learn about fourteen of them. Algae can be good or bad in how they affect the environment. Polluted water has high populations and low diversity. Clean water has low populations with high diversity. In addition, algae can also have an odor to it. There are grassy, pig pen, and fishy odors. Algae can also be tolerant of organic pollution. Some examples of algae are Volvox, Anabaena, and Closterium. Volvox is a large sphere made up of 500 and more cells. It also has a fishy odor and reproduces daughter cells. Anabaena is bad algae that produce toxins that cause death of fish and livestock, along with causing a skin rash for humans. It looks like Mardi Gras beads that produce a pig pen odor. Closterium is algae in the shape of a crescent moon. It also contains gypsum crystals at the ends where it is clear. Each different type of algae is different in shape, size, and what it does. To see the algae's true shape, you must look through the microscope because it is a microscopic organism. Algae is unique and has a pollution index. A number less than 14 is low organic pollution, 15-19 is moderate, and greater than 20 is a high level.