Blooms of cyanobacteria have appeared on the Potomac River near Washington, DC in years of drought and low river volume. The location of the bloom may be related to tidal activity. In 1983, the bloom of Microcystis aeruginosa used ammonia as its nitrogen source and contained low levels of toxic peptides. Cells collected from this bloom proved to be homogeneous and were an excellent source material for the isolation of proteins involved in photosynthesis.