Why have blood pools?

Red water in a lake in the United States is the result of a group of bacteria that can grow in extremely harsh environments.

>>> Apocalyptic rumor appeared in the US because of "blood lake"

Chromatiaceae is the name of the group of bacteria mentioned above, according to Livescience . They have the ability to synthesize energy by photosynthesis . Called anaerobic bacteria because they cannot live in an oxygen-containing environment, they are often present in hot springs or stagnant water.

Under normal conditions they cannot exist in lakes. Chromatiaceae needs light to carry out photosynthetic reactions. They have photosynthetic red, brown, purple and orange pigment particles. Because of the most common purple pigment particles in the group, biologists also call them purple bacteria.

The water in OC Fisher Lake, Texas, turned red due to the activity of the Chromatiaceae. Photo: Livescience.

As the drought spread throughout Texas and the lakes dried up this summer, fish and other living creatures died. The process of decomposing biological organisms gradually reduces the amount of oxygen in the water, creating a more harsh environment for living organisms.

Because the oxygen in OC Fisher Lake was getting less and less, the Chromatiaceae group appeared. At the same time, aerobic bacteria (need oxygen) die mass, so Chromatiaceae inherited the nutrients that aerobic bacteria used. Thanks to that, their number exploded strongly and formed a purple layer. When observing the purple layer of bacteria in cloudy water, the human eye feels like the color of blood.

Chromatiaceae is not the only group of bacteria that can turn water into red. Cyanobacteria, a bacterium that grows thanks to photosynthesis, has the same ability. They produce a lot of red and blue photosynthetic pigment particles. In the process of photosynthesis, cyanobacteria need oxygen.

The Red Sea is the name of a small bay of the Indian Ocean, located between Africa and Asia. Many hypotheses are given about its name. However, today the scientific community agrees that the name of the Red Sea concerns Trichodesmium erythraeum - a strain of cyanobacteria that produces many red photosynthetic pigments. This strain of bacteria exists in translucent waters. When the number of Trichodesmium erythraeum bacteria exploded, they formed a layer of red or pink on the sea surface. After the boom period, cyanobacteria died and their bodies made the sea water turn reddish brown.