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About

What are cyanobacteria?

Cyanobacteria are microscopic organisms naturally found throughout many inland waters. At low abundances they don't pose a threat. However, as a result of various factors including nutrient pollution, increasing water temperature, and changing water flow, these cyanobacteria can sometimes rapidly reproduce into harmful cyanobacterial blooms (HCB), often referred to as harmful algal blooms.

Why count them?

Harmful algal blooms can have numerous impacts human, animal, and environmental health. Counting allows to monitor these effects.

Whats the point of this site?

This site is a tool to help crowdsource environmental lake data.

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How to Use

  1. Click "Start Counting" above to be taken to the counters.
  2. After identifying taxa, simply use the or buttons to update the corresponding count. Alternatively, click on the count to be able to manually enter a new value.
  3. If you wish to add a count for taxa not currently present, you can find an option to "Add New Counter" under Tools.
    • Note: you can click the icon to delete this counter.
    • Likewise, you can click the icon to search the custom counter on inaturalist
  4. When you are done counting, you must have metadata filled out to do much else. Click "Enter Metadata" to view the form.
  5. You can now find "Preview Data" and "Download Spreadsheet" under "Save & Submit". If you would like to contribue to the dataset, you must have an account.
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