Diatoms of North America
Margaret Christie
Taxon Contributor
PhD Student University of Delaware
Here, on the river's verge, I could busy for months without changing my place, simply leaning a little bit to the right or left. - Paul Cezanne
My interest in diatoms began while pursuing my Master's degree, where I worked on creating a metric to use diatom assemblages to assess total phosphorous and total nitrogen concentrations in New Jersey streams. Currently, for my PhD work, I am analyzing diatoms from sediment cores to reconstruct changing water quality resulting from changes in land-use from pre-European settlement to present times in the Christina River, Delaware. Because this is a tidal river, it presents many interesting and exciting challenges, as well as a great opportunity to learn more about human influences in an environment that has not been well studied. Recently, I have taken the Ecology and Systematics of Diatoms course at Iowa Lakeside Labs, and I hope to apply the knowledge I acquired there to answering my questions.