PEET: Diatom Systematics and the Great Lakes Diatom Flora

小行星9521882 藻类硅藻是一个庞大的、多样的、具有重要生态意义的水生微生物类群，在美国，藻类硅藻的分类学专业知识有限，只有少数几个机构拥有促进研究和培训的主要自然历史收藏。 密歇根大学的尤金·斯托默博士管理着一个致力于硅藻研究的主要实验室，重点是五大湖硅藻（估计有2000种）及其在北美和国外的分类学亲属的物种丰富的植物群。 他是将计算机辅助形态分析应用于硅藻大小和形状研究的先驱，也是研究硅藻生长、地理分布和扩散、生态共存、生物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从事五大湖硅藻及其世界范围内的亲属的研究，其目标是澄清种，属和科的分类关系;基于硅藻生长过程中不受环境影响的特征构建可靠的识别关键词;在选定的硅藻群中构建系统发育关系的假设，并将这些推论与化石记录中的数据相结合;和数据库记录的自然历史收藏的硅藻，在密歇根大学和其他主要收藏。 根据PEET计划，该研究包括在五年内培训新的硅藻分类专家，研究生和博士后水平。 加州科学院和费城自然科学院的同事正在合作进行研究和培训。 此外，Stoermer博士和他的学生将每年参加爱荷华州湖畔实验室提供的硅藻课程，这是硅藻研究夏季实地课程的热门场所。 研究和标本数据库活动的结果将通过互联网以电子方式提供，并有一个专门介绍硅藻系统学、进化和生态学的万维网网页。

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.