PEET: Diatom Systematics and the Great Lakes Diatom Flora

9521882 Stoermer对于数量庞大、种类繁多且具有生态重要性的水生微生物，藻类硅藻在美国的分类学专业知识有限，而且只有少数几个机构拥有主要的自然历史收藏，以促进研究和培训。密歇根大学的Eugene Stoermer博士是致力于硅藻研究的主要实验室之一的负责人，重点是五大湖硅藻(估计有2000个物种)及其在北美和国外的分类近亲的物种丰富的植物区系。他是应用计算机辅助形态计量学分析来研究硅藻的大小和形状，以及硅藻的生长、地理分布和扩散、生态共存、石化和地质持久性以及进化关系等相关问题的先驱。在接下来的五年里，他和他的同事和学生将致力于五大湖硅藻及其在世界各地的近亲的研究，目标是澄清物种、属和科的分类关系；根据硅藻生长过程中不受环境变化影响的特征构建可靠的识别检索表；构建选定硅藻群体之间的系统发育关系假说，并将这些推断与化石记录中的数据相结合；对密歇根大学和其他主要硅藻收藏的自然历史收藏的记录进行数据库处理。根据Peet计划，这项研究包括在五年内培训新的硅藻分类专家，在研究生和博士后水平上。加州科学院和费城自然科学院的同事们正在合作进行研究和培训。此外，斯托尔默博士和他的学生每年都会参加艾奥瓦州湖畔实验室提供的硅藻课程，该实验室是夏季硅藻研究实地课程的热门场所。研究结果和标本数据库活动的结果将通过因特网以电子方式随时可供查阅，并设有一个专门介绍硅藻系统学、进化和生态学的全球网页。

9521882 Stoermer For a large, diverse, and ecologically important group of aquatic microorganisms, the algal diatoms, taxonomic expertise is limited in the United States, and only a few institutions host major natural history collections that facilitate research and training. Dr. Eugene Stoermer of the University of Michigan supervises one of the major laboratories devoted to the study of diatoms, with emphasis on the species-rich flora of Great Lakes diatoms (estimated at 2000 species) and their taxonomic relatives in North America and abroad. He has been a pioneer in the application of computer-assisted morphometric analyses to the study of size and shape in diatoms, and to related problems of their growth, geographic distribution and dispersal, ecological coexistence, fossilization and geological persistence, and evolutionary relationships. For the next five years he and his colleagues and students will be engaged in the study of the Great Lakes diatoms and their worldwide relatives, with the goals of clarifying taxonomic relationships at species, genus, and family ranks; constructing reliable identification keys based on features not subject to environmental modification during the growth of diatoms; constructing hypotheses of phylogenetic relationships among selected groups of diatoms, and integrating these inferences with data from the fossil record; and databasing records of natural history collections of diatoms, at University of Michigan and in other major collections. Under the PEET program, the research includes training of new diatom taxonomic experts, at graduate and postdoctoral levels over the five years. Colleagues at the California Academy of Sciences and the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences are cooperating in the research and training. In addition, Dr. Stoermer and his students will participate annually in the diatom courses offered at the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, a popular venue for summer field courses in diatom studies. Results of research and of specimen databasing activities are to be made readily accessible electronically over Internet, and with a WorldWide Web page devoted to diatom systematics, evolution and ecology.