Sampling

Diatoms

Diatoms are abundant elements of aquatic ecosystems. As single-celled algae and primary producers they represent the interface between the water and the food web. They provide numerous advantages over invertebrate biomonitoring as they:

• are easily sampled
• respond principally to water chemistry
• often have narrow windows of tolerance to pH, nutrients and salinity
• can easily be identified to species/variety
• can be fixed and easily sent from field site to laboratory by post
Available for viewing is a short video on sampling epilithic diatoms from a stream, and also available is the Australian Protocol for Diatom Sampling.

Identification Guides

Peter Gell and other Diatoma staff were instrumental in developing two identification guides to diatom genera and species for use by the water quality industry and education institutions. These are:

• Gell, P., Sonneman, J., Reid, M., Illman, M. & Sincock, A. 1999. An Illustrated Key to Common Diatom Genera from Southern Australia.The Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre Identification Guide No. 26, 63pp.
  
  
• Sonneman, J., Sincock, A., Fluin, J., Reid, M., Newall, P., Tibby, J. & Gell, P. 2000. An Illustrated Guide to Common Stream Diatom Species from Temperate Australia. The Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre Identification Guide No. 33, 166pp.

Address:

The Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre
P.O. Box 921,
Albury, NSW, 2640, AUSTRALIA
Phone: +61 (0)2 6058 2300
Fax: +61 (0)2 6043 1626