Why are certain bodies of water crystal clear (see-through) while other bodies you can barely see what’s in the water?
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It’s called turbidity, and has a variety of causes. It’s suspended particles in the water, so anything that suspends particles will do it. Pond or river delta fueled by runoff? Sure. Lots of algae in the water? Yes. Swimmers or legions of fish kicking up stuff? Yes.
Not a scientist or anything I just have a lake house so I’ll share what I know. Lakes are generally green, brown or blue. Brown lakes have lots of organic runoff because they’re usually by forests. They don’t get tons of light so algae doesn’t grow well, the soil doesn’t drain easy and often the watershed (area that drains into lake) is very big. The organic matter from the forest makes them brown, the poorly draining soil doesn’t filter the water. Green lakes are similar (not talking bright green, more mottled). Algae growths here make them green, similar to brown they usually have large watersheds and poorly draining soil so they take in lots of particles and don’t drain great. Unlike brown lakes they get plenty of sun which allows algae to grow. Brown and green lakes are most common, and most likely to support natural fish populations whos ecosytems are sustained by the residual organic matter. Blue lakes (clear) are kinda the opposite and much more rare. These tend to have small watersheds and well draining soil so they don’t take in a lot of dirty water and their soil acts as a natural filter to clean it. I think these are most common in mountainous regions where high altitudes and low temps limit organic matter and rocky soil naturally filters.
There’s a lot of reasons for this. I want to add that saltiness also plays a role. The more east you go in the Mediterranean the more salty the water gets and the color changes. This is mainly due to that fact that extra saltiness prevents certain organisms that might cloud up the water
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