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• n  microscopic unicellular marine or freshwater colonial alga having cell walls impregnated with silica

• Though each diatom is invisible, they outweigh in volume and importance all other sea plants combined, including seaweeds which grow as big as oaks.
• Even young birds, particularly swallows, showed radioactive concentrations 500,000 times greater than normal after feeding on diatom-eating insects.

News & Articles

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• Studying Carbon Dioxide Absorption In Antarctic Seas
  Georgia Institute of Technology The seas around Antarctica can, at times, resemble a garden. Large-scale experiments where scientists spray iron into the waters, literally fertilizing phytoplankton, have created huge man-made algal blooms. Such geoengineering experiments produce diatoms , which pull carbon dioxide out of the air. Experts argue that this practice can help offset Earth’s rising ...
  June 13, 2013 - redOrbit
• Carbon dioxide absorption in Antarctic seas
  Diatoms stuff more iron into their silica shells than they actually need. As a result, there’s not enough iron to go around, and the added iron during fertilization experiments may stimulate less productivity than expected. The study also says that the removal of iron through incorporation into diatom silica may be a profound factor controlling the Southern Ocean’s bioavailable pool of iron ...
  June 12, 2013 - Science Daily
• Moving Iron in Antarctica
  Georgia Tech research published online Monday in Nature Communications indicates that diatoms stuff more iron into their silica shells than they actually need. As a result, there's not enough iron to go around, and the added iron during fertilization experiments may stimulate less productivity than expected. The study also says that the removal of iron through incorporation into diatom silica ...
  June 12, 2013 - Newswise