Summary
50,000 slide collections
2,300 dried material
5,675 catalogued, in spirit
Number of type specimens unknown
Diatoms occur in almost all aquatic habitats, marine or freshwater, where they can be freely suspended in water (planktonic), moving through sediments, or attached to rock or other surfaces. A few grow on land, on soil or damp rock faces, and some live as endosymbionts within foraminifera.
The special feature of diatoms is that each cell is enclosed in a complex, highly ornamented cell wall made not of organic compounds, as in most plants and algae, but of silica. Diatoms are able to absorb dissolved silicate from the environment and transform it into elaborate solid structures. They generate around 20% of the oxygen produced on earth each year, and can be used to study past and present environmental conditions and can also be used to assess water quality.
Dating from c.1850 to the present day, our collections contain around 50,000 slides, as well as many suspended and dried collections of both fossil and recent diatoms.
Both marine and freshwater diatoms are well represented, with a particular taxonomic strength in the collection of harvested epipelon. It is principally a resource for taxonomic and speciation research.
The collection is predominantly from the United Kingdom with significant holdings from Europe, Asia and elsewhere.