Support of the Diatom Herbarium of The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia

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The Diatom Herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia contains more than 110,000 catalogued specimen slides, 224,000 uncatalogued lots, card files for 4,500 type specimens, 60,000 localities, 160,000 taxon occurrences, 51,000 bibliographic citations, and 200,000 unprocessed samples, making it the largest collection of its type in the western hemisphere. Dr. Edward Theriot, Curator in charge of the Herbarium, plans continued improvement in the physical preservation of specimens, especially type specimens, for use in pure and applied research. Diatoms are a diverse group of phytoplankton that are widely used as environmental indicators, and are the subjects on many biostratigraphic and evolutionary studies. Systematic collections of fossil and modern diatoms are essential to this research, and the Diatom Herbarium in Philadelphia is one of the world's most important collections of its type. Future research on global climate change, evolutionary processes, and environmental quality will rely on the continued growth and improvement of systematic collections such as this.