📢 NEW PAPER: Diatoms, the least explored majority!

Some say that diatoms, the most species-rich group of algae, are drastically underexplored by molecular means compared to other taxa. Are they right, though? In our recent study in Fottea, we put the claim to the test by analysing millions of research documents from the past 35 years focused on diatoms, other algae, cyanobacteria, plants, fungi, and animals. Surprisingly, it turned out that only ~15% of the analysed diatom literature incorporated molecular data, about half compared to other taxa! Shocking as it was, especially given the enormous species diversity of diatoms (which is often cryptic, needed to say), it was not the most shocking of our findings! Find out more in Kollár et al. 2025, Fottea 25(1). 😱

Overall proportion of 1988-2023 research incorporating molecular methods:

Development of a proportion of molecular research over time (diatoms in red):