Catalogue of diatom names resurrected: diatombase

Abstract

There is a long history of Catalogues documenting the names given to diatoms. Some were limited in distribution and impact, more complete and widely cited catalogues included the multi-volume sets of Mills and Van Landingham. Other, unpublished resources available only by physically visiting them included Index Nominum Algarum (INA) and New Species File at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP). The catalogues of VanLandingham, INA and ANSP were collaboratively integrated into a single database and made available on line as the Catalogue of Diatom Names, developed at the California Academy of Sciences, and attempted to resolve conflicts and make additions of names not found, or published subsequently, from these three sources of information. This catalogue contained 64,000+ names derived from over 12,000 references. It debuted in 2005 and database kept growing until 2011, but has not been updated since. The World Register of Marine Species is one portal to access names and other information about species occurring in marine environments. It was developed at VLIZ, and in 2015 it contained over 500,000 names. The source of diatom names for WoRMS has been AlgaeBase. A new collaboration between the editors of the Catalogue of Diatom Names and VLIZ will result in a reliable resource for diatom names, with input from experts worldwide. This new collaboration, which includes AlgaeBase, takes the Catalogue of Diatom Names and integrates it into the VLIZ Aphia database structure, to support WoRMS as well as a standalone resource for diatom nomenclature, called DiatomBase.