Blue-green bacteria very rarely occur on the southern tip of the dam only.
The dam harbours high concentrations of blue-green algae (Spirulina spp) and diatoms (Cyclotella spp.), the main food sources for its plentiful Lesser Flamingos.
The water condition of the rivers has improved since 2001–2007, but there is an increase in population of blue-green algae.
Each year, large amounts of blue-green algae were produced as the sun quickly heated the shallow water.
This proved to be a good environment for Cyanobacteria to evolve the first photosynthetic metabolic pathways which gradually increased the oxygen portion of the atmosphere, changing it to what is known as an oxidizing atmosphere.
The sea is rich in seaweed (predominantly kelp, Laminaria japonica), cephalopods, crustaceans, shellfishes, clams, and especially in blue-green algae which bloom in summer and contribute to the water color (see image above).
Cyanobacteria | cyanobacteria | Shown above as a result of a 7 week period where the columns have been allowed to grow algae, cyanobacteria and other bacterial colonies. Of specific interest are the red regions of the middle column, indicative of purple non-sulfur bacteria (e.g. ''Rhodospirillaceae |
In the early 1990s, the NSW Government assisted to establish wetlands at Carcoar Dam in an effort to control blue-green algae which had made the dam unusable for recreation and made the water discharged from the dam unusable, even for domestic animals.
Hopanoids, including 2-alpha-methylhopanes from photosynthetic bacteria (cyanobacteria), were discovered by Roger Summons and colleagues as molecular fossils preserved in 2.7 Gya shales from the Pilbara, Australia.
In some species the cyanobacteria is the sole photobiont, while other species also contain a green alga photobiont (Coccomyxa) and the cyanobacteria is restricted to warty cephalodia on the upper or lower surface of the lichen.
The P. chromatophora symbiont was related to the Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus cyanobacteria (sister to the group consisting of the living members of those two genera).
This and other species in the genus contain a green algae in the genus Coccomyxa and also cyanobacteria in the genus Nostoc as symbionts.
Bacteria that do associate with plants include the actinobacteria Frankia, which form symbiotic root nodules in actinorhizal plants, and several cyanobacteria (Nostoc) associated with aquatic ferns, Cycas and Gunneras.
Since 1997, Richard B. Hoover has published numerous papers in scientific conference proceedings and in peer-reviewed scientific journal articles and book chapters describing controversial evidence and claims for the existence of indigenous microfossils of cyanobacteria and other filamentous prokaryotes in the CI1 (Ivuna and Orgueil) and CM2 (Murchison and Murray) carbonaceous meteorites.
These two gradients promote the growth of different microorganisms such as Clostridium, Desulfovibrio, Chlorobium, Chromatium, Rhodomicrobium, and Beggiatoa, as well as many other species of bacteria, cyanobacteria, and algae.