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Algae are globally important primary producers and when faced with anthropogenic pollutant stress (APS; e.g. heavy metals, herbicides) or naturally occurring stress (NOS; e.g. naturally acidic conditions, high sulphide concentrations), physiological processes may be disrupted. This might lead to abnormal growth and, potentially, individual mortality, or, in extreme cases, extirpation. However, algal populations could persist, in the face of such stressors, if they were able to evolve rapidly based on genetic variation generated through induced mutation and/or recombination. We searched the literature for studies which assessed rates of recombination and mutation under a diversity of environmental conditions. Unfortunately, we did not encounter studies which provided estimates of recombination rates in algae, thus identifying a major gap in the literature. Our meta-analysis of published mutation rates raised the intriguing hypothesis that algae may have higher mutation rates when exposed to APS vs NOS. We conclude that more studies examining algae from diverse habitats are needed to bolster our understanding of the mechanisms behind this increased discrepency in DNA replication, and that elevated mutation rates may contribute to evolutionary rescue in algal populations experiencing declines in water quality on both local and global scales.