Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations FA - why is it so prevalent?

I find myself asking this question more and more. Where I live, I can explain it, or at least attempt to, by the fertilizer run-off from lawns. But if the water is that fertile, why doesn't it bloom phytoplankton instead and shade out the FA slowing it down? There seems to be some missing pieces. Whenever I visit my Dad, I take some time to take my son and until lately my dad to some of my favorite ponds. I know for a fact that none of these ponds are less than 60 years old. Yet not one of these ponds is plagued with FA. Most all have a ring of some type of emergent pond weed. Generally the clarity is good. Every pond is in a cow pasture where no provisions are made to separate the cattle from the pond. I really can't say how much weight of fish they carry but the fishing is very good with many, many large BG and HBG caught. The bass tend to be lean but we always seemed to catch at least one >14" and numerous smaller ones (mostly my dad who targets them).

The ponds are old and you would think they would be eutrophic but they appear to have a lot of life left in them. Fast forward to here. Post after post of ponds early in life rendered an FA mess and I just wonder why. What are we doing differently or overlooking that creates this problem? TP are a biological method of dealing with the problem. I like a biological fix to a problem but the fix doesn't always align with goals or even the law for that matter.

Any ideas as to what most prevalent factors are to the FA epidemic?

interesting topic.. I had a monster load of FA last summer (my first full summer) and expected things to be the same this year but I made a few discoveries late last summer that make me believe the same as you in that we're missing a part of the puzzle and here's why... Last year I tried a small batch of water hyacinths that quickly spread in number but after 60 days or so I noticed the plants didn't look all that special/healthy considering all of the FA I had. Not very long after noticing the plants had some yellowish color I had the flood. Within a week those yellowish plants were exploding with bright green colors again and multiplying like toads, but the FA never really came back even though we had many days in the 90's yet last year.
This year, besides building my berms and building a channel around the pond, I think I may have cleaned myself out of nutrients inadvertently y watering all of my grass on the new berms with pond water. I've cycled near 1 million gallons onto the new growth and of course it's been replaced with constant well water with basically nothing in it. My water has color but I may have overdone it by exchanging it like I have. As temps of water get into the 70's it will be interesting to see what happens.

I have more FA in my oldest pond this year than can ever remember, but I attribute that to me taking so long to get a half dozen beaver out of the pond. They spent last year clearing water lilies, including their tubers, along with other plant life and converting it into beaver poo. So now I have more fertility and less plants to use it up. I suspect it will lake a few years to get things back to where I want them. This was another downside to having the beavers. Glad my neighbor got them trapped out! Still have a family on the other side of the property which visits from another neighbor's pond and clogs one of my culverts under a trail. They are industrious critters.

Thank you for your responses RAH and Snipe. I wonder if it is a legitimate proposition to think of limited FA as an indicator of pond health. To be sure, FA is ubiquitous and it grows everywhere to some degree.

Down here, we generally see a die off once the pond temperatures get high in the July and Early August time frame. It floats in only three ponds I frequent, so about half of them. The two managed by cities get no response at all, (which I like), but this last year the one managed by an HOA received a dye treatment after the float. Obviously, poorly timed and I can vouch that the dye has negatively impacted the condition of some of the most impressive BG in the metroplex. This year dye was applied in April and I am just sick about that.

Snipe, after the flood, what do you think happened? Perhaps certain nutrients or the FA itself were flushed out? Your observations intrigue me particularly that the WH was able to thrive after FA was diminished. So is FA a strong enough factor to adversely impact a plant community?

FA seems to fall into an "it depends" category where it is no problem at all in some ponds and an unbearable nuisance in others. This seems to be area where data from many ponds could be brought together and mined for insights into its control through planned diversity of the plant and an animal communities and perhaps other management practices.

I think the FA was flushed but the WH reacted more to a strong influx of nitrogen. Before the flood the WH were headed downhill condition-wise as FA was going crazy due to high phos levels I believe.
The reason my arrowhead are showing signs of stress (I believe) is because I'm pumping all of my nutrients out watering grass. They are suffering just as my WH did. Once the nitrogen was back, things (plants) greened back up but samples showed my phos was still low and the FA never came back.
I believe I'm going to try fertilizer tabs directly near my plants, or maybe just select plants to see if there's a direct relationship there, which I'm sure there is but to what level I'm unsure.
I do know that areas with frequent rain from storms with little if any lightning has very low nitrogen present and just the opposite in strong, intense lightning storms, rain is much higher in nitrogen.

Last year my FA grew like gangbusters in spring, but died back in July & August. I had TP stocked, which undoubtedly helped, but it seemed like high temps helped as well.

If I could snap my fingers and eliminate all FA, I wouldn't at my place. Valuable habitat for YOY fish, and it does not take over the entire pond (though it makes the shallow back bays nearly unfishable at times). Also, my TP need something to eat rather than forage fish. I learned that the hard way.