Early Career Networking Award
María Luján García (co-coordinator)
I started my research at the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina) studying the diatom biodiversity of surface sediments in Argentinian Patagonia, which led to the description of several new species for this area. This extensive work increased my interest in the taxonomy and ecology of diatoms. My PhD also involved the analysis of diatom assemblages from lacustrine sediment cores and it really caught my eye to use diatoms as a key to present and past environmental change. It has been very motivating to work in multidisciplinary groups and to combine physical, chemical and biological information to answer questions related to how the aquatic environment evolves over time and to detect changes due to climatic conditions, catastrophic events and human impacts. Currently, I’m a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bremen (Germany) and my project involves understanding the ecological responses of Grand Solar Minimum (Homeric minima) on annually laminated lake sediments from different parts of Europe in order to establish a regional hydroclimate record with decadal resolution. This position has also allowed me to start giving lectures to both Bch and Ms students.
Sabrina Bustos (co-coordinator)
I am a postdoctoral researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (Argentina) and I am currently studying the environmental changes that occurred during the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene in the dry Puna of Jujuy, Argentina. In this interdisciplinary project, I focus on analyzing the variation of diatomological assemblages with the main objective of trying to better understand the relationship between the environment and the communities that inhabited the region at that time. This study is a continuation of my doctoral thesis (University of Buenos Aires and CONICET, Argentina), which gave me deep knowledge about the taxonomy and ecology of the diatom species present in the region. Furthermore, these investigations allowed me to explore and work with the possible applications of the use of diatoms in both Forensic Sciences and Environmental Sciences.
Sandra Garcés Pastor (co-coordinator)
I am an ecologist, employing diverse molecular and microscopic techniques to investigate the effects of climate change and 
humans on biodiversity in ecosystems across several research lines: i) improving paleoecological reconstructions, ii) mountain ecosystems and climate change, iii) ecological and human molecular indicators, and iv) aquatic ecosystems and molecular water quality assessment. I did my PhD in palaeoecology at the University of Barcelona, using pollen, diatoms, charcoal, tree-rings and DNA metarbarcoding. I did two postdocs at the at the Artic University of Norway, where used sedimentary DNA (sedaDNA) to amplify past communities of plants and mammals with the aim of studying changes in the vegetation of the Alps in response to climate and human activities throughout the Holocene. After 5 years of postdoctoral research, I returned to Spain with a 3-year Beatriu de Pinós fellowship at the Log-lab (https://log-lab.barcelona) in the Instituto de Ciencias del Mar. I also have an adjunct assistant professorship at the botany section of the University of Barcelona.
Xavier Benito Granell (co-coordinator)
I am an aquatic ecologist motivated by fundamental and applied questions on continental and coastal communities, metacommunities, and paleolimnology. I mainly use diatoms and approaches that complement diatom-based reconstructions, such as biogeography, geochemistry, and paleoclimatology. My studies combine observations and models of aquatic ecosystems influenced by basin and climate forcing at regional and global scales, such as mountain lakes, rivers, and deltas. In recent years, 
I became interested in global databases synthesizing modern and past observations of environmental, limnological, and biodiversity change, utilizing equitable data practices. I’m serving as the Neotoma’s constituent database Tropical South American Diatom Database leader. After obtaining a master’s degree in physical geography and a doctorate in aquatic paleoecology from the University Rovira y Virgili (Spain), I held two postdoctoral positions: first at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and then at SESYNC, Mayland University. Currently, I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Marine and Inland Waters Program of the Agri-Food Research and Technology Institute, and I also hold an adjunct assistant professorship at the University of Barcelona, both institutions in Spain.
PROJECT DiatomS mEEt Databases: resources and practices to enable large-scale ecological research (SEED)
SEED means collaboration and networking, a first “seed” to generate a community-curated database of Iberoamerican diatoms to establish the foundation of ecological, biogeographical, and paleolimnological research using open, fair, and equitable data practices of species distribution.
What: The SEED project (2 years) is structured in three phases. In Establish we will generate protocols for integrating the Iberoamerican diatom database. We will first develop a data sharing and collaboration guidelines document, with special emphasis on data archiving through generation of DOI (Digital Object Identifier) for unpublished datasets, co-authorship guidelines of any related output that utilizes the database or part of it, and citation and acknowledgement procedures. In Unify, we will focus on assembling the different diatom datasets and environmental variables. We will generate a generic and reproducible curation procedure to ensure consistency in 1) diatom taxonomy, 2) environmental variables (e.g., water chemistry, climate) and 3) metadata (e.g., region, analyst, collection, geographical location, identification resources). In Share, we will transfer the results of the project which will be accessible through an online database, and one hybrid workshop dedicated to data steward and database training capacity using Neotoma as an open-access research infrastructure.
The database is envisioned to be dynamic and evolve according to the participant’s contributions and needs. For the first phase of the project, there will be four eligibility criteria:
How: Data can be shared in any type of format (e.g., Excel, csv, R file). In this link there is an example of a diatom database from South America, also hosted in GitHub and Zenodo. SEED will use similar repositories and will be set private so that the project participants can upload their contributions and interact with the different phases of the project before generating the final results. You can also share the files by email.
Who: Early-career researchers (MSc and PhD students and junior postdocs) are particularly encouraged to participate, and the call is open to diatomists at any career stage. If you are interested in participating in SEED, kindly fill out this form. We will contact you for the first meeting in which the geographic focus and data collection criteria according to participants’s data and interests will be defined.
SEED receives funding from ISDR, within its networking grant program https://isdr.org/about-isdr-grants/
If you have any questions, you can contact us at:
lujis87@gmail.com (M. Lujan Garcia)
sabrina.bustos.m@gmail.com (Sabrina Bustos)
sgarcespastor@gmail.com (Sandra Garcés-Pastor)
xavier.benito.granell@gmail.com (Xavier Benito)