Research news on diatoms

Diatoms are unicellular photosynthetic eukaryotes within the stramenopiles, characterized by intricately patterned siliceous cell walls (frustules) composed of biogenic opal. They are major primary producers in marine and freshwater ecosystems, contributing substantially to global carbon fixation and the biological carbon pump through organic carbon export to depth. Diatom frustules exhibit high species-specific morphological diversity, enabling fine-scale taxonomic and ecological studies, including paleoenvironmental reconstructions from sediment cores. Their rapid growth, sensitivity to nutrient regimes (especially silicon, nitrogen, and iron), and well-defined responses to physical forcing make diatoms key model organisms in biogeochemistry, plankton ecology, and studies of silica cycling and trace metal dynamics.