• What to note about water
  • Presence of scums (yellow, green, blue-green, bubbly)
  • Colonies/filaments are easily visible in the water (or against a light background) with the nake eye.
  • Frothy appearence to near shore areas
  • If not scums, an olive color to the water
  • Presence of dead fish or mussels
  • Lack of larger zooplankton in tows
  • 
    • Image contributed by Jennifer Graham, USGS.
  • 
    • Image contributed by Ann St. Amand, PhycoTech.
  Physical appearance of cells/filaments/colonies
  • Presence and location of heterocysts
  • Presence and location of akinetes
  • Presence of sheath
  • Shape and size of cells
  • Shape of colony (tangled filaments or a straight line)
  • Physiological health of cells, are they healthy or degrading
  • Composition of other taxa in the community
  • 
    • Image contributed by Ann St. Amand, PhycoTech.
  • 
    • Image contributed by Ann St. Amand, PhycoTech.

• Odor
  • earthy/musty
  • sulfurous
  • septic
  • grassy (contributed by non-Cyanobacteria)
  • fishy (contributed by non-Cyanobacteria)
  • cucumber-like (contributed by non-Cyanobacteria)
  • geranium (contributed by non-Cyanobacteria)

• Fish Kills
  • Extent and location
  • Composition of taxa in the kill
  • Lesions
  • 
    • Image contributed by Jennifer Graham, USGS.

Field Sampling and Preservation Protocols

• How to sample, preserve for cyanotoxins
  • Summary Field Sampling Protocol for microcystin
  • Site Inspection and Sampling (Chapter 11, Chorus and Bartram, 1999)
• How to sample, preserve for taste/odor compounds
  • Field Sampling Protocol for taste/odor compounds
  • Standard Methods: Sample collection for individual volatile organic compounds, Section 6010B
• How to sample for taxonomic identification
  • Proposed Field Sampling/Preservation Protocol for Algal Identification
    • PhycoTech's protocol, but a solid, general approach
  • Greenwater Laboratory Sampling Protocol
  • Determination of Cyanobacteria in the Lab (Chapter 12, Chorus and Bartram, 1999)