DiatomBase – Principal online Catalogue of Diatoms


DiatomBase – Principal online catalogue of diatoms 

Diatoms are the most ubiquitous and species-rich lineages of siliceous microalgae (phylum: Bacillariophyta) that play an important role in the ecosystem by contributing about 20% of the oxygen we breathe 

Due to their morphology and various uses, they have attracted the attention of researchers the world over. Efforts have been made over one and half century to catalogue diatoms.

As an official start, a group of 19 scientists from 12 countries came together for the first time before the 11th Central European Diatom Meeting hosted by the Czech Academy of Science during a LifeWatch-WoRMS sponsored workshop held in March 2017 at Prague. John Patrick Kociolek (University of Colorado Museum of Natural History and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, USA) is the chief taxonomic editor of DiatomBase. Karthick Balasubramanian (Agharkar Research Institute, Pune) is the only participant from India. After the general introduction on VLIZ, Aphia and WoRMS, there was a session on WoRMS online editing by Leen Vandepitte (member of the WoRMS data management team). 

The website (www.diatombase.org) has been officially launched during the 11th International Phycological Congress in August 2017 at Szczecin, Poland.


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