There has been a very hot and dry summer. This phenomenon have been observed in several lakes. The lakes are not saline and have low impact of human activity.
The bacteria are rod shaped and embedded i mucus, images attached.
It's curious! I think that you should take samples from two different points (one in this foam and other far away, avoiding take this mucus) and sequence the 16S rRNA gene from metagenomic DNA by Illumina MiSeq (now it's cheaper and you could have the list of microorganisms which are in your samples to compare the species that you have in both kind of samples). This paper could be a example Article Microbial Ecology of Thailand Tsunami and Non-Tsunami Affect...
I ever read about Australia’s pink lakes. It’s involve with some bacteria that can produce pink mucus.
I Hope this link will give some idea to you.
https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-environment/2016/12/australias-pink-lakes/
Sometimes, what you think is bacteria may be algae. I adore you take samples from different points in the foamy area of the lake and culture them on nutrient agar and subsequently on maConckey agar. If pink coloured colonies were observed then, you suspect E. Coli. Further biochemical tests and DNA analysis 'll be necessary to confirm your result.
Thank you for the answers!
We have frozen samples so we can sequence the 16S rDNA.
These pink lakes in Australia and elsewhere are extremely saline, the Norwegian lakes have low salinity. However, the pink colour might be due to carotenoids produced by these bacteria.
We could not observe any autofluorescence from the samples.
Thanks, Traci! There are similarities in colour, but the ecology doesn't match.
It might be some sort of pink pigmented Methylobacterium, but I am not sure about the ecology.
Species of the genus Methylobacterium are pink-pigmented; some of them were isolated from plants, freshwater, or freshwater sediments.
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