The current brown color that dominates the water of the Albufera de València, instead of its usual dark green tone, is due to the "concurrence of multiple factors, some of them unusual", both biological and meteorological, but which are not serious, according to the city council.
The new councilor of Devesa-Albufera, José Gosálbez, has announced that the City Council will be "attentive and vigilant to the evolution of the waters" and that he will meet "in the near future" with representatives of the management of the Natural Park and the Department of the Environment to address this situation.
According to municipal sources, "during the last few weeks, the water of l'Albufera has taken on an exceptional color, which has changed from the usual dark green, due to the high density of cyanophycean algae, to brownish colors or even brownish at times." orange".
The Devesa service points out that this color change, "which has aroused a certain amount of media interest and has continued for nearly twenty days," constitutes an "unusual" situation that is explained as a response to the attendance of multiple factors, some of them "unusual".
According to technical reports, a common cycle of senescence (aging) of water has developed, with a reduction in chlorophyll A (which gives the water its green color) and an increase in carotenes (which gives an orange-brown color). to water), all of this enhanced by the high concentration of phytoplankton in the lagoon in the previous months.
Added to these circumstances are the exceptional heat waves and the high renewal of the lagoon water during the second half of August and the first half of September, and the subsequent rains and mild temperatures, which generate conditions of change in the composition of the plankton. .
Gosálbez explained that, according to the technical reports available, "the change in color of the Albufera water responds to biological and meteorological factors that, despite not being serious", will "make them remain attentive and vigilant to the evolution of the waters".
