Diatoms play essential roles in aquatic ecosystems; they produce an estimated 20–30 percent of Earth’s atmospheric oxygen, regulate major biogeochemical cycles, and provide key information used in water quality assessment and environmental monitoring programs. Accurate identification and ecological understanding of diatoms are therefore fundamental to biodiversity conservation, public health protection, and natural resource management.
However, substantial portions of diatom diversity and ecological function remain undocumented. Taxonomic research, species descriptions, and the maintenance of high-quality identification resources are chronically underfunded, and governmental agencies generally do not prioritize support for taxonomy or foundational ecological work. This lack of stable funding has led to significant gaps in scientific knowledge, limited training opportunities, and insufficient infrastructure for managing diatom biodiversity data.
The diatoms.org project includes expert taxonomists, students, early-career scientists, and analysts who contribute peer-reviewed “species pages”, biogeographic records, and high-resolution light and scanning electron micrograph imagery. The platform supports environmental monitoring programs, academic researchers, state and federal agencies, and the public by providing tools for species identification, comparative analysis, distribution modeling, and taxonomic verification. We reach the public through simple and compelling leads into science through imagery and art projects, and in the process, develop collaborations with designers, students, and artists. Diatoms.org plays a key role in training and professional development through the Diatom Web Academy, the Society for Freshwater Science Taxonomic Certification Program and field station courses. While most current content focuses on freshwater diatoms from North America, diatoms.org is laying the groundwork to expand the platform to more complete freshwater and marine species, extending its relevance from watersheds to coastal systems.