Here's an article from the Denver Post detailing the alarming spread of Didymo algae in Colorado streams [November 1, 2005, "Slime smothers streams"]. From the article, "The brown slime blanketing the rocks in Middle St. Vrain Creek looks - to the casual observer - like, well, slime. But to biologist Sarah Spaulding, the algae, officially Didymosphenia geminata, look like big trouble...Didymo has been found smothering the bottoms of streams in the Western states, including Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Nevada. It is the prime suspect in the decline of brown trout in South Dakota, where biologists think the organism has grown so thick it's choking out the flies the fish feed upon...But didymo has probably always lived in the high mountain, pristine lakes of the West. In Colorado, it was first described in the Fryingpan River in 1975. Didymo is microscopic diatom, a once rare organism with cell walls made of silica, giving it a rough feel despite its slimy appearance. In recent years, something has triggered the diatom to explode in numbers and in places beyond its historical range, such as Arkansas and Tennessee."
Category: Colorado Water
5:23:35 AM 
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