Why do blooms sometimes appear overnight?
Even if you can’t see blue-green algae floating on the surface of the water, that doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Blue-green algae can be suspended at various depths in the water, and their location depends on a number of factors. The most important of these are light and nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen). Many species of blue-green algae have evolved to be able to control their buoyancy as the availability of light and nutrients change with the time of day and local weather conditions. At night, when there is no light, cells are unable to adjust their buoyancy and often float to the surface, forming a surface scum. So this scum can literally appear overnight and may linger until wind and waves scatter the cells throughout the water body.
