1: Great Introduction to North American Diatoms
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. 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. 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. This is in my judgement a model for short handbooks. I recommend it to all microscopists who are interested in aquatic microorganisms.
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