The Diatom Paleolimnology Data Cooperative (DPDC) is a database of diatom and associated ecological and paleolimnological data useful in studying global change.
Mr. Bowler says almost half of the oxygen we breathe comes from very small algae called diatoms. These plants live in the part of the water where the sun reaches.
They're diatoms: photosynthetic, single-celled algae responsible for producing oxygen and helping seed clouds on a planetary scale and with intricately sculpted, geometric exoskeletons made of -- yeah, glass.
Those plants and animals that do survive usually reproduce very fast and in great numbers. The single-cell plant, the diatom, can multiply itself into a billion new distoms in one month.
Some of the critters I found were delightful things like seed shrimp and many more beautiful, geometric diatoms. I then went farther afield to camp out in the Dry Valleys for a couple of weeks.