Antarctic diatom collection. Catalogue of the taxa erected by J. Frenguelli

MARTHA FERRARIO; JOSÉ M. GUERRERO; ANABEL LAMARO; DANIEL GIULIANO; ELENA FABRO; ADRIÁN CEFARELLI; GASTÓN ALMANDOZ

Ghent

Simposio; 22st International Diatom Symposium; 2012

Lab. Protistology & Aquatic Ecology

One of the main topics that have gained consensus within the scientific community is the assessment of biodiversity as the basis for a sustainable management. In this sense, during last years the importance of historical records and the utility of scientific collections have been revalued. In many scientific meetings has been raised the need to make known those properly organized collections. A list of the most prominent diatom collections in the world has been already elaborated but only those existing in Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela have been included for Latin America. In this framework and considering the relevance of Dr J. Frenguelli?s Diatom Collection, housed at the Museo de La Plata, the 38 taxa of Antarctic diatoms erected by Frenguelli, which have not been published according to the rules of the ICBN, are being analyzed. The aim is to produce an illustrated catalogue of the type materials of the specific and infraspecific taxa. The text will be both in Spanish and in English. We present here results obtained so far, which include the survey of the preservation status of the microscope slides, a list of the taxa recorded for each sample, a synopsis of the environmental characteristics of the sampled sites and the migration of all related information to a computer database. Further work in progress includes the obtaining of digital light microscopy microphotographs of the taxa and the translation of the original diagnosis into Latin. This catalogue will revalue Frenguelli?s Collection within the biological collections and, at the same time, will facilitate its consultation for the international community of diatomists. Acknowledgements: Proyecto UNLP N542; PIP 01734 CONICET