Green Pond Slime

This past week my 6 year old and I went for a walk through our neighborhood and the local neighborhoods. It was a nice day out and we didn't want to waste it so we went out for some exercise and a bit of fresh air.  Along the way we stopped at a pond and noticed it covered in "green slime".  We found a stick to pull some of the "slime" out and investigate it.

Yummy, right?  :-)  Naturally my daughter asked what it was.  The quick answer is algae, but I had to look up a more detailed answer.  Here's what I pulled from the web.

"Look closely at the plant material. If the water is tinted green, green-blue or possibly even brownish, then your pond is probably experiencing a planktonic (free floating, microscopic) algae bloom. These blooms usually consume available nutrients and run their course. A foul odor sometimes accompanies the bloom.

If the plants do not contain leaves and are stringy filaments, clumps or netlike masses, then one or a number of the species of filamentous algae are present. Filamentous algae usually start growing on the bottom, form mats that can float to the surface, and can eventually cover the entire surface of the pond."

So there you are.  It's algae that forms from the combination of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and sunlight.  We probably spent 20 minutes using sticks to pull some of it out of the water and making a huge pile of "green slime".  Again, I probably had just as much fun as she did doing this!