Diatom Microscopy

DIATOM MICROSCOPY The main goal of the book is to demonstrate the wide variety of microscopy methods being used to investigate natural and altered diatom structures. This book on Diatom Microscopy gives an introduction to the wide panoply of microscopy methods being used to investigate diatom structure and biology, marking considerable advances in recent technology including optical, fluorescence, confocal and electron microscopy, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and spectroscopy as applied to diatoms. Each chapter includes a tutorial on a microscopy technique and reviews its applications in diatom nanotechnology and diatom research. The number of diatomists, diatom research, and their publications are increasing rapidly. Although many books have dealt with various aspects of diatom biotechnology, nanotechnology, and morphology, to our knowledge, no volume exists that summarizes advanced microscopic approaches to diatoms. Audience The intended audience is academic and industry researchers as well as graduate students working on diatoms and diatom nanotechnology, including biosensors, biomedical engineering, solar panels, batteries, drug delivery, insect control, and biofuels.

DIATOM MICROSCOPY The main goal of the book is to demonstrate the wide variety of microscopy methods being used to investigate natural and altered diatom structures. This book on Diatom Microscopy gives an introduction to the wide panoply of microscopy methods being used to investigate diatom structure and biology, marking considerable advances in recent technology including optical, fluorescence, confocal and electron microscopy, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and spectroscopy as applied to diatoms. Each chapter includes a tutorial on a microscopy technique and reviews its applications in diatom nanotechnology and diatom research. The number of diatomists, diatom research, and their publications are increasing rapidly. Although many books have dealt with various aspects of diatom biotechnology, nanotechnology, and morphology, to our knowledge, no volume exists that summarizes advanced microscopic approaches to diatoms. Audience The intended audience is academic and industry researchers as well as graduate students working on diatoms and diatom nanotechnology, including biosensors, biomedical engineering, solar panels, batteries, drug delivery, insect control, and biofuels.

The aim of this new book series (Diatoms: Biology and Applications) is to provide a comprehensive and reliable source of information on diatom biology and applications. The first book of the series, Diatoms Fundamentals & Applications, is wide ranging, starting with the contributions of amateurs and the beauty of diatoms, to details of how their shells are made, how they bend light to their advantage and ours, and major aspects of their biochemistry (photosynthesis and iron metabolism). The book then delves into the ecology of diatoms living in a wide range of habitats, and look at those few that can kill or harm us. The book concludes with a wide range of applications of diatoms, in forensics, manufacturing, medicine, biofuel and agriculture. The contributors are leading international experts on diatoms. This book is for a wide audience researchers, academics, students, and teachers of biology and related disciplines, written to both act as an introduction to diatoms and to present some of the most advanced research on them.

High-resolution images of phytoplankton cells such as diatoms or desmids, which are useful for monitoring water quality, can now be provided by digital microscopes, facilitating the automated analysis and identification of specimens. Conventional approaches are based on optical microscopy; however, manual image analysis is impractical due to the huge diversity of this group of microalgae and its great morphological plasticity. As such, there is a need for automated recognition techniques for diagnostic tools (e.g. environmental monitoring networks, early warning systems) to improve the management of water resources and decision-making processes. Describing the entire workflow of a bioindicator system, from capture, analysis and identification to the determination of quality indices, this book provides insights into the current state-of-the-art in automatic identification systems in microscopy.

DIATOM MORPHOGENESIS A unique book presenting the range of silica structures formed by diatoms, theories and hypotheses of how they are made, and applications to nanotechnology by use or imitation of diatom morphogenesis. There are up to 200,000 species of diatoms, each species of these algal cells bearing an ornate, amorphous silica glass shell. The silica is structured at 7 orders of magnitude size range and is thus the most complex multiscalar solid structure known. Recent research is beginning to unravel how a single cell marshals chemical, physical, biochemical, genetic, and cytoskeletal processes to produce these single-cell marvels. The field of diatom nanotechnology is advancing as this understanding matures. Diatoms have been actively studied over the recent 10-20 years with various modern equipment, experimental and computer simulation approaches, including molecular biology, fluorescence-based methods, electron, confocal, and AFM microscopy. This has resulted in a huge amount of information but the key stages of their silica morphogenesis are still not clear. This is the time to reconsider and consolidate the work performed so far and to understand how we can go ahead. The main objective of this book is to describe the actual situation in the science of diatom morphogenesis, to specify the most important unresolved questions, and to present the corresponding hypotheses. The following areas are discussed: A tutorial chapter, with a glossary for newcomers to the field, who are often from outside of biology, let alone phycology; Diatom Morphogenesis: general issues, including symmetry and size issues; Diatom Morphogenesis: simulation, including analytical and numerical methods for description of the diatom valve shape and pore structure; Diatom Morphogenesis: physiology, biochemistry, and applications, including the relationship between taxonomy and physiology, biosilicification hypotheses, and ideas about applications of diatoms. Audience Researchers, scientists, and graduate students in the fields of phycology, general biology, marine sciences, the chemistry of silica, materials science, and ecology.

Vol. 3 adds section "The Entomological monthly."

This volume of Nova Hedwigia Beihefte includes papers covering a broad range of topics in diatom and chrysophyte research - including historical analyses of taxa names and name changes - through descriptions of novel taxa; observations of fine details of valve and cell morphology and ultrastructure, in many cases in an ecological and/or biostratigraphic context; to attempts at clarifying some hard-to-resolve questions on the evolutionary history of diatoms. Although there is no single common scientific thread connecting all contributions, they are all influenced, in some way, by the work of R. M. Crawford. Some highlight the still substantial extent of undiscovered terrain in the realm of diatom (and microalgal) ultrastructure, regarding variations on the fine construction of both frustules and organic cell components, an area of research in which R. M. Crawford laid important groundwork. Other papers add to our understandingof individual taxonomic groups in which R. M. Crawford raised a heightened interest, such as the genus Corethron which features the most elaborate movements of cell wall parts during cell division in diatoms, or the diverse genera of melosiroid diatoms where the work of R. M. Crawford was instrumental in recognizing the extent of (functional-)morphological and ecological variability. Combining diverse perspectives and methods, this volume will be of interest to researchers of diatoms, chrysophytes and other microalgal groups. The volume is dedicated to Richard M. Crawford, who spent a lifetime researching dinoflagellates and diatoms, particularly their morphology and taxonomy, utilizing various microscopical techniques. He is perhaps best known for his pioneering works on the dinoflagellate genera Oxyrrhis and Woloszynskia, and the centric diatoms, Aulacoseira, Melosira, Ellerbeckia, Paralia, and Corethron. He was one of the contributors to the famous blue book (The Diatoms: Biology & Morphology of the Genera) and was the curator to the Hustedt Diatom Collection in Bremerhaven.