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The Art of Diatoms by Xavier Cortada Artist-in-Residence FIU School of Environment, Art and Society   Fig. 1. Cortada’s one-hundred diatom works on tile (each 6″ x 6″), 2017. I marvel at looking into a microscope.  I focus in and see time. I see the past, really far into the past. I see beautiful small aquatic plants encased in glass that lived on our planet for many millions of years. Sitting inside Dr. Evelyn Gaiser’s Algae Research lab at Florida International University in Miami, I look at a slide   and see diatoms.  Diatoms transport me to a place so distant in time that it wouldn’t look like the Earth I know. They help connect me to an Earth I am trying to better understand. An Earth fluid. An Earth as process. An Earth completely interconnected. An Earth generating life forms across space and time.  Fig. 2 . Xavier Cortada, Drawings of Diatoms from the Everglades, 6″ x 6″, ceramic tile, 2017. In diatoms I also see moments captured in time.  Scienti...

by Luca Marazzi * Why is it important to study algae? To start with, algae produce ~ 50% of the oxygen on planet Earth, they are food for small and large animals that in turn are eaten by people, but they also recycle nutrients and absorb CO 2 from the air; by existing and doing their own thing, these microorganisms provide these so called ecosystem services to human beings (Fig. 1). Moreover, as algae reproduce fast and are often adapted to specific environmental conditions, understanding how many species of algae, and which ones, live where and why give us cues as to the health of aquatic ecosystems, such as rivers, lakes, and wetlands.  Fig. 1 . Simplified scheme of the role of algae in food webs (from my Ph.D.  Thesis ). * Dr.   Luca Marazzi   is a freshwater ecologist working in   Dr. Evelyn Gaiser’s research group   in the School of Environment, Arts and Society at Florida International University. His main interest is how biodive...

By Keely Mills* I am a fan of hot temperatures and sunny climates. This may sound strange coming from someone who lives in a wet and grey part of the UK ( Nottingham ). However, hot weather is one of the main reasons I love researching tropical lakes, and a trait I share with the January 2017 ‘Diatom of the Month’. I would like to introduce you to my favourite diatom: Amphora coffeaeformis (Fig. 1) [now renamed Halamphora coffeaeformis ] – a salt-tolerant species, indicating a shallow, slightly saline environment (Gasse, 1986). Fig. 1 . A specimen of Amphora coffeaeformis found in the sediments of Lake Nyamogusingiri, Uganda (photo: K. Mills). So, how did I come to ‘discover’ this diatom, and how did it come to be my favourite? My story starts as a new Ph.D. student at Loughborough University in 2005. I was working with Dr David Ryves on a project focussed on the Ugandan Crater Lakes, where I would use a palaeolimnological approach to infer past climate and environmental changes th...

            by Kristen Dominguez*                      As an undergraduate student in Evelyn Gaiser’s Lab at Florida International University (FIU), I was           provided the opportunity to visit and study the algae of the pristine and gorgeous Lake Annie .           Located at the Archbold Biological Station (halfway from Miami to Orlando), this sinkhole lake fed           by rainfall and groundwater is home to a wide variety of organisms, including many planktonic           algae. In 2006, this tiny lake became part of the Global Lakes Ecological Observatory Network that           examines global trends in lake ecosystems. Fig. 1.  Kristen taking Secchi depth measurements of water transparency at Lake Annie . Fig. 2. Kristen Dominguez (lef...