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Diatom species Cymbella cistula
This diatom species (Cymbella cistula) -- microscopic algae that grow as single cells or in small colonies -- was collected for a survey of diatom flora at Lake Khovsgol National Park in north-central Mongolia. [One of 7 related images. See Next Image.]
More about this Image
Mark B. Edlund of the University of Michigan is in the process of collecting, cataloging and preserving diatom specimens from a remote lake in north-central Mongolia. Microscopic algae are an important part of most aquatic habitats. They often live within narrow environmental conditions and can act as bioindicators for changes in pollution, water temperature, nutrient levels and salinity.
"Diatoms are incredibly valuable as a tool for water quality monitoring," Edlund explains. "And they are one of the primary tools used in paleoecology, a discipline that uses fossil organisms to decipher environmental history."
Edlund received a three-year postdoctoral U.S. National Science Foundation International Research Fellow award for his work on diatoms in Mongolia's Lake Khovsgol National Park. He and a collaboration of American and Mongolian scientists have made over 600 collections of diatoms to date from the lake and have established permanent herbarium collections at the National University of Mongolia and the California Academy of Sciences, the University of Michigan and the Science Museum of Minnesota.
Lake Khovsgol and the surrounding region was chosen because it is one of the most pristine large lakes on Earth and therefore globally significant as a natural laboratory for the study of ecology and evolution. The lake is estimated to be over 1.6 million years old.
[Research supported by NSF grant OISE 9802816.]
Credit: Mark B. Edlund, Ph.D.
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