Tropical Diatoms of Costa Rica
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Diatom Biodiversity and Landscape Patterns in Lowland Neotropical Streams

This research was initiated to document the diatom biodiversity and community response to naturally occurring high and low solute lowland streams at La Selva Biological Station on the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica. This work stems from long-term stream research of C.M. Pringle and colleagues (STREAMS Project) who have documented changes in stream ecosystem processes related to the naturally occuring solute concentrations in streams. This is the first effort to quantify species-level differences in diatoms among streams and describe a flora from these unique environments.

This research is a "hybrid" project, combining both taxonomy/biodiversity/biogeography and ecology to describe the importance of diatoms and other algae in these stream ecosystems. Although taxonomy and ecology are separate fields of study, they are critically intertwined and each is essential for the success for the other objective.

Results from our research reflect potential impacts of land use and forest removal along riparian areas of streams in tropical and temperate regions. Removal of canopy and increased anthropogenic nutrient inputs may dramatically increase primary production in the stream and change diatom community composition.

One of the main goals in creating and updating this website was to provide information about our research including information about taxa found at La Selva. We recognize that resources can be difficult for scientists in many countries to obtain and we hope that this website can provide information for fellow phycologists about neotropical diatoms.

This project is funded by the National Science Foundation's International Research Fellowship Program and the Americas Program (INT 0202673), to R. Bixby. Water chemistry data and funding for additional chemical analyses has been provided by the STREAMS project at the University of Georgia (N.S.F. LTREB DEB-0075339 to C. Pringle and F. Triska).