Diatoms of North America
Savannah Cutler
Taxon Contributor
Master’s Student Earth and Planetary Science, University of New Mexico
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. ― Gandalf, Lord Of the Rings
I was first introduced to diatoms in the spring of my Sophomore year and haven’t looked back since. My undergraduate thesis while at Vassar College focused on reconstructing diatom assemblages from Estancia Basin, New Mexico to infer changes in water chemistry across the American Southwest during the Last Glacial Maximum. I continued paleolimnology research for my Master’s project, and am working under Dr. Peter Fawcett and Dr. Becky Bixby at the University of New Mexico tracking lake level changes in the Valles Caldera complex, New Mexico during Marine Isotope Stage 11 (420-370 Ka) using diatom assemblage and relative abundance metrics.