I'd like to introduce you to more of my friends here. This is Zygogonium. What it is, is a filamentous green algae, if you look at the micrograph of it. If you look on the left, you see some green, which is Zygogonium in young patches that aren't very thick and then you see some darker, purple patches. These are all Zygogonium dominated ecosystems. I think dominated because they're a few euglenoids in there, some Chlorella, some other things. But if you pick this stuff up, the mass of the mat is Zygogonium, it's filamentous, it feels a little slimy. I once had someone working for me who could not pick this up without laughing. I've never seen anyone have a reaction like to a protist before but it gives you an idea.

Now, this environment is a bit unusual. You see it's very shallow in an area where there's nice gravel and so on. But what's interesting is the water here is pH about 2.5. I don't need to tell you, neutral is about pH 7. So this is very acidic but it's ambient temperature. And so with that pH range and that temperature regime, you end up with Zygogonium dominated ecosystems. What happens if you raise the temperature? Here's a little bit of an outflow that begins at pH 2.5 and you can see the Zygogonium. Here you can see them a little bit more purply. This is ambient temperature.

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