The Diatoms: Applications for the Environmental and Earth Sciences

It seems that in the 21st century, discussions of diatoms are everywhere, as the roles they play in global nutrient, oxygen and silica cycling, their utility in understanding the status and trends of aquatic ecosystem health, harmful algal blooms, and their potential as a possible source of renewable fuels are better understood and appreciated. Hence the second edition of a very influential book (Stoermer and Smol 1999) on the applications of diatoms has been much anticipated. This second edition is much expanded, from 20 chapters in the 1st edition to 36 chapters, written by 67 authors. I should note that the author list reads like a Who’s Who in Diatom Research. All of the authors are well-known in the world of diatom research, and have established reputations and many publications in their areas of expertise. As such, the chapters are authoritative, and assemble much of the established literature on the topics presented. Thus, it is THE authoritative book on the topic. It is worth noting, however, that of the 67 authors only 4 are from outside of North America and Europe. These authors are from Australia New Zealand, and Japan, and there are no authors from Mexico, South America, Africa or elsewhere in Asia for this book. The editors set the tone for the book overall, indicating, “...we now live in interesting times. Diatoms have proven to be extremely powerful indicators with which to explore and interpret many ecological and practical problems” (Smol and Stoermer, p. 6). The power of this volume rests more on the ecological rather than taxonomic or practical problems with which diatoms are being used in the 21st century. It will be an important resource for those interested in the ecology of diatoms or who have research programs that utilize diatoms to understand ecosystems. Thus, this volume would be of great value to people working with paleo-environments and taxa generally, and paleoecologists specifically, who need a resource for understanding these important environmental proxies in their assemblages. Indeed, for ecological problems, nearly every habitat imaginable has a chapter devoted to it, and each of these chapters provides an overview of the that habitat and how diatoms have been studied in