blue-green alga

English

one of the blue-green algae

Noun

blue-green alga (plural blue-green algae)

1. Any member of the taxonomic class or phylum Cyanobacteria; a primitive photosynthetic organism similar to bacteria which is thought to have generated the first oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere.
   • 1967, George K. Reid, edited by Herbert S. Zim and George S. Fichter, Pond Life, New York: Golden Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 31:

     Blue-green algae cells lack nuclei, and pigment is scattered.

   • 2023 August 23, Tommy Greene, “Lough Neagh ‘dying in plain sight’ due to vast algal blooms”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     Northern Ireland’s Lough Neagh, the largest lake in the British Isles, has been hit by recorded levels of potentially toxic blue-green algae that regional agencies say have not been seen since the 1970s.

Usage notes

• The term alga is now considered improper scientific usage, since true algae are eukaryotic organisms, rather than bacteria. It remains in common use among aquarists and others, however.

Synonyms

• cyanobacterium, BGA

Hypernyms

• (bacterium called alga): alga, bacterium

Translations

member of cyanobacteria

Czech: sinice (cs) f Dutch: blauwalg (nl) Finnish: sinibakteeri, sinilevä, syanobakteeri French: algue bleu-vert f Greek: κυανοφύκη f (kyanofýki) Italian: cianobatterio (it) m

Further reading

• Cyanobacteria on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Cyanobacteria on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Cyanobacteria on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons