Can algae cause pearling?

For a few weeks, I've noticed the algae on my stones is building these tiny bubbles. I've been planning to clean up the stones, but today I looked at them from the bottom, and I noticed tiny air bubbles floating up from one of the stones.
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The tiny bubbles just above the rock are slowly floating away from the stone. The bubbles started floating away today on this stone and one other. The stone has been underwater for at least a year, and I haven't done a water change in a week. The filter and airstone are each one feet away from this and there are no bubbles in between the three... This all leads me to believe this is indeed coming from the algae?

I've heard of HC and other plants pearling, but not this. Have other folks had this happen? While I LOVE the effect this gives the tank, I'm concerned I'm inviting a much worse kind of algae into the tank at the same time.

I've never seen this! Probably because, like you, I would clean it up pretty fast as long as it wasn't in my one lone planted tank. Wish I could be more help. That is a cool picture though, and I would personally leave it and study it so you could help explain it to the rest of us..... 

This happens in my tanks as well, I see pearling in mosses, algae, and bacterias. I think its normal & you could go either way with this algae- washing it off, and or keeping it on the rock.

Algae photosynthesizes so it releases O2 which has to go somewhere.  Hooray for happy algae!