New iNaturalist Project
On April 20 I opened the book on a new iNaturalist project, “Diatoms and Desmids of the United States”, with the following general information:
About:
There is no more precious resource than an adequate supply of clean fresh water; and there is no better indicator of water purity than the micro-organisms which make it their home. The purpose of this project is to document the population of diatoms and desmids found in fresh surface waters of the United States and, when accompanied by additional data, to find a correlation between the pH value of those waters and the types of diatoms and desmids found there.
Terms:
Observations must be of freshwater diatoms and desmids of the United States; no marine varieties. Must be accompanied by micro-images suitable for identifying the organisms to the genus level. If possible, the pH value of the water sampled should be included to best serve the purposes of the project. Only images of living specimens will be used in the pH analysis but images of non-living specimens will also be accepted for use in general population studies.
I expanded the project to include all of the U.S. because relatively few people are equipped and/or motivated to participate in a project like this; and the larger area I cover, the more likely I am to attract participants. Of course, generating interest (even without participation) is not a bad thing.
Comments
Hello William,
I stumbled on your photos when browsing recent observations and was curious about your project and these desmids that you work on. While I am not equipped to help with your project, I wanted to say thanks for what you are doing and for your journal articles. Interest generated!
-Lindsey
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