(See the database page for major updates to the web site data and other content).
Press
March 2005
The "Antarctic Freshwater Diatoms" web site was featured as a 2005 Science Spotlight on the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research's web site. Below is a modified version of the spotlight text.
NOVEL TAXONOMIC WEB SITE ASSISTS ANTARCTIC ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Sarah Spaulding, Rhea Esposito, and David Lubinski (all at INSTAAR, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado at Boulder) led a team of scientists, graduate students and undergraduate students to develop a dynamic web database, "Antarctic Freshwater Diatoms", that combines ecological data collected over more than a decade in the McMurdo Dry Valleys region. This site is part of an ongoing effort to discriminate between Antarctic species that are relatively recent invaders from those that are relicts of a warmer past. The site's database takes a technologically novel approach by linking microscope images, scanning electron micrographs, original taxonomic descriptions, species geographic distributions, species assemblage data, maps, and permanent archives. Members of the research team are continually adding new data and images; no technical web knowledge is required. The interdisciplinary effort brought collaborators and students together from the University of Colorado, INSTAAR, University of Maine, CU Math-Bio Program, NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), and NSF Partnerships for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy (PEET). INSTAAR participants included Diane Mcknight and Chi Yang. The effort was principally funded by NSF's McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research program (MCMLTER) and an NSF supplement to the Niwot Ridge LTER program to encourage collaboration among undergraduates in biological sciences and mathematics departments. The site managers are planning to include diatom samples from other parts of Antarctica in the future. Although just launched in late February 2005, the site is already serving as a model for regional taxonomic databases, as an effective way to recognize and communicate species endemism and biodiversity
