Michelutti et al. 2007

Michelutti N, Douglas MSV, Smol JP. 2007. Evaluating diatom community composition in the absence of marked limnological gradients in the high Arctic: a surface sediment calibration set from Cornwallis Island (Nunavut, Canada). Polar Biology 30: 1459-1473.

These authors measured a range of water chemistry and climatological variables in a large number of lakes and ponds on and near Cornwallis Island. This island is remarkably boring in its geology, with little in the way of relief or patterns of geological variation, and provides a sort of negative control for studies of Arctic limnology and the variables exerting the strongest control on diatom species assemblages.

Overall, this study supports the hypothesis that climate and water chemistry variables are the major determinants of diatom diversity in Arctic ponds and lakes. Cornwallis’ ponds and lakes varied little in altitude, latitude, temperature, or a large number of water chemistry variables, and varied little in diatom communities, too, when compared to the existing database of Arctic limnology and diatoms.