DiatomWare: An Interactive Digital Image Catalog for Antarctic Cenozoic Diatoms

该奖项由极地方案办公室南极地质和地球物理方案提供，支持开发标准化的硅藻图像目录或数据库。硅藻被许多人认为是目前极锋以南、从近岸到深海的南极新生代海洋沉积物研究中最重要的微化石群。这些微型化石由硅质壁组成，被称为树突，由单细胞植物(硅藻纲藻类)以各种形式产生。因此，它们在南大洋和其他地方对确定海洋沉积物的年龄具有重要的生物地层学意义。此外，古气候和古海洋研究越来越依赖硅藻化石数据。特定分类群生物地理分布的变化表明了古生态条件的变化，并为古代海洋的表面生产力和温度提供了证据。然而，结论的普遍性受到工人之间物种概念的差异的限制。广泛的研究界直接或间接地依赖于对硅藻物种的准确识别。目前的技术可以用来极大地改进用于这些鉴定的标准参考资料。这个项目将开发一个交互式的现代和新生代南大洋硅藻化石的数字图像目录，称为“硅藻器皿”，供专家和教育工作者使用，作为快速、准确和一致的物种鉴定的辅助工具。因此，这将是研究人员的资源。在无法维护标准图书馆资源的地方，如船上的考察船或麦克默多站等偏远站点，它将特别有用。南极主要的地质钻探活动，如新的SHALDRIL项目和正在进行的ANDRILL项目将受益于该产品，因为它们将严重依赖硅藻生物地层学来实现其研究目标。硅藻图像数据库将仿照2002年10月作为国际纳米浮游生物协会出版物的CD-ROM发行的NannoWare。BugCam将根据需要进行调整和修改，以运行Ditom Ware数据库，然后可以从台式或笔记本电脑运行该数据库。数据库的图像和文本将从文献中扫描，或从光学或扫描电子显微镜以数字形式捕获。软件界面将包括一些数据字段，可以通过点击鼠标按钮访问。主要信息将是全息模型的图像和描述。此外，在任何可能的情况下，副原型或亚型的代表性图像将被包括在普通透射式、差分干涉对比光中，如果可用，将作为图纸和扫描电子显微镜图像包括在内。还将包括一份不超过35个单词的英文诊断(“迷你描述”)、区域和线性时间方面的生物地层范围、参考书目、被认为是初级同义词的物种和类似物种的名单。相似物种的名单将与它们各自的图像文件相互参照，以便快速访问，以便在查看屏幕上进行直接视觉比较。可以同时将多个图像带到观看屏幕上，并且缩放功能将允许在广泛的放大范围内进行图像检查。按钮将允许从程序内部调用范围图、参考书目和文献中的关键公共领域出版物。Ditom Ware/BugCam包将以象征性的成本通过一个主要的非营利性协会通过CD-ROM分发，并在万维网上免费提供给互联网用户。质量控制措施将包括由合格专家网络对最后定稿的数据库进行严格审查。建成的数据库将包括350到400个物种的描述和图像，包括化石和没有化石记录的现代形式。拟议的硅藻图像数据库的发展将对所有依赖于准确的生物地层测年和南极海洋沉积物和浮游生物的古环境解释的研究领域至关重要。该数据库还将作为微古生物学学生及其教授的宝贵教学工具，将为具有不同经验和背景的微古生物学家提供快速了解物种的手段，并将促进分类学概念的统一，因为它将在微型化石专家社区的建议下开发和不断更新。预计该数据库将得到广泛使用，因为它将通过因特网和CD-ROM广泛使用，用于不需要大量存储器、昂贵的专门程序或额外硬件的个人计算机。

This award, provided by the Antarctic Geology and Geophysics Program of the Office of Polar Programs, supports the development of a standardized diatom image catalog or database. Diatoms are considered by many to be the most important microfossil group used today in the study of Antarctic Cenozoic marine deposits south of the Polar Front, from the near shore to deep sea. These microfossils, with walls of silica called frustules, are produced by single-celled plants (algae of the Class Bacillariophyceae) in a great variety of forms. Consequently, they have great biostratigraphic importance in the Southern Ocean and elsewhere for determining the age of marine sediments. Also, paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic studies increasingly rely on fossil diatom data. Changing biogeographic distributions of given taxa indicate shifting paleoecological conditions and provide evidence of the surface productivity and temperatures of ancient oceans. The generality of conclusions, though, is limited by variation in species concepts among workers. The broad research community relies, directly or indirectly, on the accurate identification of diatom species. Current technology can be used to greatly improve upon the standard references that have been used in making these identifications.This project will develop an interactive digital-image catalog of modern and Cenozoic fossil diatoms of the Southern Ocean called "DiatomWare" for use by specialists and educators as an aid in rapid, accurate, and consistent species identification. As such, this will be a researcher's resource. It will be especially useful where it is not possible to maintain standard library resources such as onboard research vessels or at remote stations such as McMurdo Station. Major Antarctic geological drilling initiatives such as the new SHALDRIL project and the pending ANDRILL project will benefit from this product because they will rely heavily on diatom biostratigraphy to achieve their research objectives. The DiatomWare image database will be modeled on NannoWare, which was released in October 2002 on CD-ROM as a publication of the International Nannoplankton Association. BugCam will be adapted and modified as necessary to run the DiatomWare database, which can then be run from desktop or laptop computers. Images and text for the database will be scanned from the literature or captured in digital form from light or scanning electron microscopes.The software interface will include a number of data fields that can be accessed by the click of a mouse button. Primary information will be the images and descriptions of the holotypes. In addition, representative images of paratypes or hypotypes will be included whenever possible in plain transmitted, differential interference contrast light and, when available, as drawings and SEM images. Also included will be a 35-word or less English diagnosis ("mini-description"), the biostratigraphic range in terms of zones and linear time, bibliographic references, lists of species considered junior synonyms, and similar species. The list of similar species will be cross-referenced with their respective image files to enable quick access for direct visual comparison on the viewing screen. Multiple images can be brought to the viewing screen simultaneously, and a zoom feature will permit image examination at a wide range of magnifications. Buttons will allow range charts, a bibliography, and key public-domain publications from the literature to be called up from within the program. The DiatomWare/BugCam package will be distributed at a nominal cost through a major nonprofit society via CD-ROM and free to Internet users on the Worldwide Web. Quality control measures will include critical review of the finalized database by a network of qualified specialists. The completed database will include descriptions and images of between 350 and 400 species, including fossil as well as modern forms that have no fossil record.The development of the proposed diatom image database will be important to all research fields that depend on accurate biostratigraphic dating and paleoenvironmental interpretation of Antarctic marine sediments and plankton. The database will also serve as a valuable teaching tool for micropaleontology students and their professors, will provide a rapid means of keying down species for micropaleontologists of varying experience and background, and will promote a uniformity of taxonomic concepts since it will be developed and continuously updated with the advice of a community of nannofossil fossil experts. Broad use of the database is anticipated since it will be widely available through the Internet and on CD-ROM for use on personal computers that do not require large amounts of memory, costly specialized programs, or additional hardware.