If I had to come up with a single question which guides my research, it would be, "Why are there so many sizes and shapes of plankton?" With hundreds of described species, and perhaps the most complex morphology of all planktonic diatoms, Chaetoceros have fascinated me ever since I first saw one in an undergraduate laboratory, probably 25 years ago. My research combines taxonomy, systematics, evolutionary ecology, and physical and optical oceanography in an attempt to gain insight into this question.

There are over 400 described species of Chaetoceros and Bacteriastrum.
This one is Chaetoceros debilis. It is common in temperate, coastal seas.

Taxonomy is the science of discovering and describing species, or higher-level groupings of organisms. Comprehensive taxonomic information is fundamental to studies of phylogenetic/evolutionary relationships, classification and biodiversity. The relationship between taxonomy, systematics and oceanography is discussed in an essay from my dissertation, entitled The Gardens in the Sea.

Family Chaetocerotaceae

Chaetoceros Ehrenberg 1844

• Description of the genus
• Traditional Classification
• Rines & Theriot - Phylogenetic Hypothesis of Relationships within Chaetocerotaceae
• Glossary of terms for describing the morphology of Chaetoceros (from Rines & Hargraves 1988)
• Life cycles
• Resting Spores
• Culturing Chaetoceros
• Taxonomy of Unicellular Chaetoceros

Bacteriastrum Shadbolt 1853

More pictures and descriptions of Chaetoceros can be found on my related web sites:

East Sound Phytoplankton. East Sound, in the San Juan Islands, on the Washington/Canadian border is a major field site for our ONR-funded research. There are lots of Chaetoceros there.

Plankton Diatoms of the Northeast, US coast.

Inimical Chaetoceros. Chaetoceros are not known to produce toxins. Nevertheless, there are a few species which cause harmful algal blooms.

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3 February 2002