Hello Stefano,

As a Southern Hemisphere diatom taxonomist, my group who work in a variety of marine ecosystems from Temperate to Antarctic, have found that using WoRMS (http://www.marinespecies.org/) as the basis for the naming has worked best for us in ensuring taxonomic nomenclature is up to date. I think what is equally important in any survey list is to provide in an Appendix detailing the species observed and the original authority of the species you have used to identify your species. At the very least if you have the original authority of the species, those that follow your work can determine if there have been improvements, but at the same time know exactly which description you based your identification on in the first place. However, I assume that your work is possibly Freshwater based and so you will need to use whatever the latest algae database is, so perhaps this is why the reviewer asked for you to update.

In terms of the Californian Algae Base, I think the review probably means the Californian Academy of Sciences Catalogue of Diatom Names- (http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/diatoms/names/ref/index.asp), but I am just guessing.

With regard to the Fottea supplement- three solutions are possible here:

1) write to the authors and ask for copy.

2) If you are at an institution (University) ask them to do an inter-library loan (often this means they send a scanned pdf).

3) Write for help in obtaining a copy through Diatom-list.

Hope this is useful. 

Leanne Armand

Thank Leanne

In “materials and methods” of my article, I wrote that diatoms determination has been made with the 5 volumes about diatoms of Süßwasserflora von Mitteleuropa, the most complete books on european diatoms ... although a bit 'dated. These  texts (on freshwater diatoms) are still today the most widely used in Europe for the water monitoring.

In the “results” , for each species, I have attached the name of the author, and so on ....

Regarding the number of Fottea ...... I could buy it .... I don’t think that authors will be able to give me a copy for free.... ok for the inter-library loan, I dont know the "Diatom-list" .....what is it?

Thanks again

Stefano

Hi Stefano,

I guess Leanne has solved your most of the problem ...in addition to the that , I would like to suggest you to contact marine botany lab of Stazione zoologica, Napoli Italy. There they have very good reference collection  on phytoplankton taxonomy and world class taxonomist like Marina montresor, Diana Sarno, Adriana Zingone...

I am sure they will be a great help for your query ....

all the best,

Ravi

Thank you for the precious suggestions. I will try to have an help from colleagues of Stazione zoologica of Naples, but in general they are specialized on marine diatoms.

All the best

Stefano

Maybe this link could also be of help: http://westerndiatoms.colorado.edu/taxa/genus/Discostella

I have the Fottea you are looking for. If you give me the name of the exact species I can scan and sent you by e-mail.

Stefano,

We have have similar issues in our work, but I also encourage your use of the Diatoms of the United States website for up-to-date names (http://westerndiatoms.colorado.edu/).  A second very good source is the Academy of Natural Sciences, in Philadelphia: http://diatom.ansp.org/algae_image/

Best of luck,

John Wehr

Hi Stefano, Seems you have had many useful replies. I am sure you will sort your issues out in due course.

The DIATOM-L listserv is a forum for discussion of all matters diatomaceous or microscopically siliceous run kindly by Roger Sweets for the diatom community. You can see more about the list and how to subscribe on his web page:  https://s10.lite.msu.edu/res/msu/botonl/b_online/library/diatoms/diatom.html#listservers

I personally find it a useful and non-encroaching community forum.

Kind regards,

Leanne Armand

Thanks Ines, John, Leanne and Siva for your useful suggestions and indications. Sorry for the late of my reply, but, in these days, I’m doing vegetation reliefs on Alps and it is not easy to have Internet.

I will try to consult all the sites that you have indicated to me. Thanks Ines.... towards the end of the day I will try to send you the names of Cyclotella that are of my interest.

Kind regards

Stefano

Dear Stefano, 

nice to hear about new Italian colleagues working on diatoms! In the case you still need some taxonomical support, I also have the fottea volume and could send you some scans. In the case you send me some Cyclotella pictures, I could also try to determine them: working on lake sediment diatoms, I already met several strange Cyclotella specimens.  

Re the diatom list a very good one is that of the software omnidia, were you can find also intermediate nomenclature, I mean temporary names or names whicha have already been abandoned. Otherwise, I also currently use the colorado web page. It's very nice, though several EU taxa are not inlcuded. 

Kind regards, 

Monica

Dear Monica, thanks for your useful reply.

Sorry for the delay in my reply but I’m in the Alps, in a place where phone doesn’t work .... you can image internet .....

Ines Galovìc made me some copies of the pages of Fottea.

I consulted the Colorado web page. My impression is that too much EU taxa are not included. About Omnidia ... it is very expensive .... in this moment I’m not able to buy it.

Kind regards

Stefano

May i ask you to follow this link:

http://westerndiatoms.colorado.edu/taxa/genus/Discostella

Spaulding, S., and Edlund, M. (2009). Discostella. In Diatoms of the United States. Retrieved August 08, 2014, from

Apart from getting the names up to date, there is a really big problem with people (even "experts") just giving lists of taxa because IDs are often difficult and most of this sort of work (including my own!) is based on picture-matching.  Having dealt with lists in compiling a checklist myself, I realize that old names cannot always be updated because more than one taxon was later recognized, and there is still a lot of force-fitting into European taxa (not such a problem for you in Europe, but a major issue for me in the tropics; but it's the state of the art).  The only way for people in future to be able to verify your list is for you to document the records with good images (published as supplementary information if you are not doing a floristics paper), and of course to keep voucher slides.  You should also give the rationale for each taxon you claim, and say why you rejected similar taxa. I was pushed into this by a reviewer of my big records paper, but I have come to realize that it was well worth doing and I value that mentoring.

I have recently found AlgaeBase pretty much up-to-date, and I am also into CAS Diatom Catalogue often. Both are excellent, but of course both have holes.

Dear Christopher

Thank you very much for your important and valuable advices. They will be surely very useful for my future research.

Kind regards

Stefano