Diatoms of North America

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What Customers Say About Diatoms of North America:

If you are a serious diatomist I recommandto you : An Atlas of British Diatoms (Hardcover)http://www.amazon.co.uk/Atlas-British-Diatoms-B-Hartley/dp/094873745X Excellent reference book for this price.Contain about 200 drawings of diatoms species. No photos.Some species would be more descriptive with a support pictureinstead a drawing.

Diatoms provide a major part of the oxygen that we breathe- a fact that is not generally appreciated- and so are very important to our life on this planet.Vinyard has, in a very short book, admirably summarized the knowledge of North American diatoms to the date of publication (1979) and he uses bold text to highlight unfamiliar terms, which than can be looked up in the glossary. Vinyard's Diatoms of North America is one of those little gems that generally pass unnoticed by the public but are well known by both professional and amateur biologists. I recommend it to all microscopists who are interested in aquatic microorganisms. This is in my judgement a model for short handbooks. As a professional biologist (who is also an amateur fresh water microscopist) I appreciate such books, which are disappointedly rare. While now almost certainly dated, Vinyard's book remains the classic guide to these fascinating organisms.