The last European Diatom Meeting was held from July 6th to 10th in Murcia, Spain! A very special one because our PhD student Raquel Viso was part of the organizing committee, together with a nice team of Spanish diatomologists. Hristina and Raquel also presented the latest work on their dissertations. Hristina gave an oral presentation […]
The first expedition of the newly initiated Long-Term Ecological Monitoring (LTEM) program took place January-March 2026, on Ulu Peninsula, Antarctic Peninsula, and was executed by DiCE’s own, Tyler Kohler. Ulu Peninsula is the largest continuous ice-free region of the Antarctic Peninsula, and hosts a wide range of habitat types encompassing moss cushions, lakes, streams, and soils. It is also home to the […]
A new Viewpoint by Jan Kollár has been published in BioScience (Oxford University Press), one of the leading general biology journals. The article discusses how the rapid expansion of molecular methods since the 1990s has transformed taxonomy and biodiversity research. This development is often framed as a trajectory of replacement, with morphology and organismal expertise […]
We are very proud to announce that Jan Kollár, founding member of the DiCE research group, has accepted a new researcher position at the University of Rostock, Germany. As of May 2026, he will be part of the newly-funded project “BENKIESO: Diatoms of the Baltic Sea – DNA and AI in biodiversity monitoring,” where his […]
A new paper from the DiCE group has been published in the European Journal of Phycology. We show that the widely reported diatom Pinnularia acidicola is not a single species but a pseudocryptic complex. Using an integrative (polyphasic) approach that combines morphology, molecular data, and eDNA-based biogeography and ecology, we resolve its taxonomy and describe […]
We are thrilled to share that our group leader Dr. Tyler J. Kohler will coordinate a brand-new long-term environmental monitoring program (LTER) in Antarctica, under the Czech Antarctic Research Programme (CARP) hosted by Masaryk University, Brno. This nationally funded effort, led by the Faculty of Science, Charles University, marks a major step forward in tracking […]
From September 10–12, 2025, the DiCE team took part in the 66th annual meeting of the Czech Phycological Society in České Budějovice. We contributed with five oral presentations and one poster, showcasing ongoing research on cryospheric diatom diversity and ecology in Antarctic and Alpine habitats. It was a pleasure to exchange ideas with colleagues from […]
Our PhD student Raquel Viso was recently featured in the Diatom of the Month series of the International Society for Diatom Research (ISDR). In the post, Raquel reflects on the challenges and rewards of studying diatoms in Antarctica, arguably the most remote and extreme environment on Earth. Her story highlights how scientific curiosity, logistical resilience, […]
In early 2025, our colleague Kateřina Kopalová returned to Antarctica for another scientific expedition, this time to the Argentinian research station Esperanza. Together with science communicator and photographer Petr Jan Juračka, she collected samples of diatoms which, thanks to their silica shells and ecological specificity, offer unique insights into both past climate change and present-day […]
We’re excited to announce a new first-author paper of our PhD student Hristina Kochoska, just published in Diatom Research! The study explores one of Africa’s last tropical glacier-fed streams, draining from the Mt. Stanley Glacier in the Rwenzori Mountains of Uganda — a unique and vanishing habitat. Using a combination of light and electron microscopy […]