Luc Ector Bursary award – Deevena Elias
I am Deevena Elias, research scholar at Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, India. I have been working on the health of the lake ecosystem with multiple indicators, diatoms being the most interesting, beautiful, and sensitive indicator. I was introduced to diatoms by my co-
supervisor Dr. Keely Mills. I was encouraged by her to collect samples, initially I was nervous if I was doing it the right way.
The Luc Ector grant from ISDR helped me visit Agharkar Research Institute (1700 km from my institute), Pune and work on diatom identification and enumeration. The institute offers the best laboratory and guidance on diatoms in the country. Diatoms have different shapes and come in different sizes, initially I did not know the nomenclature so for my own reference I gave them names for example, watermelon, ladder, and caterpillar. I and gained interest, and not just me, but my friends also started enjoying diatoms. I started microscopy with a target to complete 300 valves for each slide but for a few slides I clicked more than 400 and even 700 valves.
Once you start looking at diatoms you don’t want to stop!
The process is tiresome but interesting at the same time. Diatoms at genus level have been identified and we are still working on species level. I am looking forward to interesting results and trying to relate the diatoms with water quality parameters. I would like to thank ISDR for making it possible to study and research diatoms.
The ISDR Grant Scheme is now open until August 1st, 2024. Do you have any ideas that you
would like funding for? Read on here: https://isdr.org/about-isdr-grants/ and apply
here: https://isdr.org/how-to-apply-to-isdr-grants/