Red SCUM on the PRI dam !!

Discussion in 'Designing, building, making and powering your life' started by tomintaz., Oct 20, 2007.

  1. tomintaz.

    tomintaz. Junior Member

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  2. Ojo

    Ojo Junior Member

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    looks like iron, maybe Crenothrix?

    ferric hydroxide floc becomes overgrown during warmer periods by macroscopic periphyton growths
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog_iron


    This is important to natural purification because many of the processes by which the water is cleaned are biological processes—often performed by microbes like bacteria and fungi. The layer of bacteria, fungi, and algae that covers underwater surfaces has a technical name: "slime." Only kidding. Actually it is known as "periphyton" (which means "slime growing on underwater objects").

    Once runoff water reaches a stream, natural woody debris dams become very important. Debris dams form when streamside trees die and fall into the water. Leaves and sticks catch on the wood, and the water is forced to slow down a bit as it moves through and over the dam. When the water is slowed by a debris dam, the periphyton organisms described above have more time to act, and thus a better chance of doing their job.

    For a long time, people thought that debris dams were messy, and contributed to floods during high water. They were removed from many miles of streams and rivers by dredging. We now understand that they are very important to the retention, or slowing, of water and materials carried by the water. They are the sites of a lot of in-stream water purification. Along the shores of lakes, trees also fall into the water, and can be similarly important to water purification by providing surfaces for the microbes that do it. Incidentally, trees that fall into lakes are called "structure" by fishermen, and are usually great places to catch fish because of the habitat they provide.
    excerpts
    https://www.sciencenetlinks.com/lessons.cfm?DocID=275
     

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