@martyn-kelly.bsky.social
Second post in my series on the "natural history of nitrogen". The prevailing dogma is that phosphorus limits growth in freshwaters, so this series is an opportunity to think think about the role that nitrogen plays too. bit.ly/4yzmoDH
The natural history of nitrogen (II) …
If there is such a thing as the “natural history of nitrogen” then it will mostly be about how nitrogen interacts with the world of biology. This is because nitrogen is simultaneously a …
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More about the travertines I encountered whilst in the Georgian Caucasus recently in this post. Cyanobacteria present but in a sorry state, but plenty of diatoms to compensate. bit.ly/4hG8B84
Faded glories …
Safely back in the UK after two weeks in Georgia, luggage unpacked and washing machine on, I was finally able to look at the samples I collected from the Truso travertine. They had been …
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A short post before I go off on holiday showcases the work of fellow periphyton artist Daniel Zamorano: bit.ly/4iJqYea
The periphyton mess …
The previous post contained my most recent painting of the microscopic world, encapsulating my “imagined but not imaginary” approach to painting. This one also has paintings of the micro…
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I'm returning to a vertical mat of Cyanobacteria that I encountered back in May to reflect on how these might be, in their own small way, "ecosystem engineers": bit.ly/46vMFae
Tangled tapestries …
I’ve turned the cyanobacterial mat I described in “Vertically challenged …” into a picture to try to understand how the different elements interact with each other. The abundant branched Scytonema…
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I've just started a new series of posts on the Natural History of Nitrogen, partly to explain how nitrogen affects freshwater ecosystems, and partly to think through the relationship between chemistry and natural history: bit.ly/4y0lxvU
The natural history of nitrogen (I) …
I’m back in the Lake District but, this time, looking at it through the eyes of a four-year old boy equipped with his first “I Spy” books. Natural history, in his eyes, is mostly observa…
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River beds in Cumbria are getting greener as our summers get warmer. Some observations from my most recent visit are in this post: bit.ly/4wm4O4O
Amazing range of diatoms, including several genera from the Cymbellaceae, all living in a cyanobacteria mat on a vertical cliff in Upper Teesdale: bit.ly/4vZ6kJZ
In the family …
Back in May, I wrote about some algae I had encountered in Upper Teesdale (see: “Vertically-challenged …”). I commented on the range of diatoms that I saw living in and around the Cyanob…
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An unexpected find in Wastwater ... the rare Cyanobacterium Colodesmium wrangelii. As ever, with freshwater algae, "unexpected" has as much to do with expectations than the actual distribution of the organism: bit.ly/4vZRfJ0
Tales of the unexpected …
I’ve written about the benefits of returning to the same site over and over again in order to catch it in all its moods. There is a danger in this, in that you can become blasé and appro…
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I thought that the next in my series of essays on common freshwater diatom genera should deal with the most common genus that I have encountered over my career. Here is a quick summary of what they tell us about the state of our inland waters: bit.ly/43W6Ddf
Achnanthidium subhudsonis invades Britain?
Achnanthidium subhudsonis from the Afon Seiont, North Wales; the three images on the left are raphe valves, the two on the right are rapheless valves. Scale bar: 10 micrometres (1/100th of a millim…
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Only two brown algae are found in UK freshwaters, and one of them was really abundant during our recent visit to the River Tweed: bit.ly/4vsCDkE
Studies in brown …
The headlines screamed “hottest May ever!” last week, and whilst the south of England sweltered under record temperatures, the Borders, where Bill Brierley and I were teaching a course on rapid alg…
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A good week for fieldwork, starting with a walk in Upper Teesdale and some encounters with remarkable Cyanobacteria/algae communities growing on the vertical face of Whin Sill: bit.ly/43oFZtj.
Vertically-challenged …
There was a heatwave forecast across northern England on the Whitsun holiday, so we set off early to avoid the worst of it and, when we arrived in Upper Teesdale, the growing heat of the morning su…
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Another of my occasional essays on diatom genera. This time, I'm looking at Eunotia, a denizen of remote, and often acidic, places: bit.ly/4djZsRG
Eunotia: journeys to remote places …
My comments on diatoms and topophilia (see: “Hannaea: springing into life …”) also apply to the subject of this post, but with a few variations. The genus Eunotia is, like Hannaea, a species of re…
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I've learned over the past decade that many rivers are at their most interesting in the winter, which is the time when fieldwork is least appealing. Persist, however, and surprising patterns reveal themselves ... bit.ly/4ueG0ve
Ever-changing worlds
I’m back from my annual fortnight sojourn in western China and spending a day standing in cold streams in West Cumbria pondering the condition of their algae and the state of the world. …
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I was asked recently about how I created my paintings of the underwater microscopic world, so I have written a post that follows one of these through from the germ of an idea to a finished painting: bit.ly/4tgb2Cj
Diary of an artist …
I was asked during my recent Diatom Web Academy talk about how I produced my paintings of the microscopic world so this post is a diary of the journey, from idea to finished image, for a picture th…
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Springtime is the season when the diatom Hannaea arcus is most prolific. It is a diatom that inspires "topophilia" in me - if I see it under my microscope I am transported to the landscapes where I find it, which just happen to be some of the most beautiful parts of the country: bit.ly/4sjSd0V
Hannaea: springing into life …
Sometimes, the sight of a diatom generates associations in mind, and I am momentarily transported to the time and place where I collected the sample. My optic nerve triggers other nerves…
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The next of my "natural history notes" on our most common diatoms looks at Amphora and, more specifically, A. pediculus: bit.ly/4cZnPE6
Amphora pediculus: living on largesse
This post is about the genus Amphora and, more specifically, about the most common representative of that genus in UK rivers, Amphora pediculus. The photograph at the top shows citiz…
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Some collected posts on the role fieldwork plays in the life of an ecologist. The challenge is to maintain consistency between sites and over time whilst still being open to all the stories the stream wants to tell you. bit.ly/3ZWCbxn
The case for fieldwork …
I am anxiously watching weather forecasts and hydrographs this weekend because I am due to go out to do some winter fieldwork next week and want to be sure that river levels are low enough to permi…
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The second of my posts on the natural history of diatom genera looks at Rhoicosphenia - a diatom that piggybacks on other algae bit.ly/4sPHtrF
Rhoicosphenia: the hitchhiking diatom …
My account of Navicula focussed on the challenges of life inside a biofilm – the slimy layer on submerged stones – pointing out that though it may appear thin to us, from the perspective …
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fieldwork on a brutally cold day in Cumbria this week revealed some intriguing microscopic life still thriving on the river bed, despite the frost all around us: bit.ly/4qDVbMp
Cold cases …
December was an exasperating month for a stream ecologist. I needed to make one of my regular visits to my Lake District sites but river levels were unremittingly high for the first thre…
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Best wishes for 2026 to all my network. My New Year's resolution for my blog is to write a series of essays on the most commonly-encountered diatom genera. The first is on Navicula: bit.ly/4qzRcRd
Navicula: upwardly mobile diatoms
The modus operandi of this blog from the start has been to write in a “natural history” style about aspects of the natural world that are otherwise only discussed using the opaque language of hard …
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I've dusted down and updated a post I wrote about 10 years ago as a light-hearted Christmas offering. Enjoy the break and best wishes to all for 2026 microscopesandmonsters.wordpress.com/2014/12/26/t...
The anatomy of angels
Spare a thought during the Christmas festivities, for those bloggers who explore the art-science interface. This is a difficult time of year for us, assaulted on all sides by anatomically-implausib…
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Some reflections on how diatoms and Cyanobacteria may interact with each other and with grazers in a small Cumbrian stream. Written as a displacement activity whilst waiting for river levels to sink to the point where I can get back out and collect my next set of measurements. bit.ly/3YrwKGh
Eye to the microscope …
The eye always knows more than it sees. Kenneth Clark I have been watching the weather forecast and the river levels closely for the past three weeks, trying to find a window of opportun…
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The third post written by Bill Brierley and myself, explaining why algae often proliferate in our rivers. If this interests you, take a look at lnkd.in/eznUJjj6, an example of citizen scientists using RAPPER, and other techniques, to extend the evidence base in the Ribble catchment. bit.ly/3XQ4PiP
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
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The second post in a short series of why filamentous algae are flourishing in British rivers, co-written with Bill Brierley can be found at this link: bit.ly/4qX9aOp. In this one, we try to show how factors other than nutrients also play a role. One more post on this topic will follow shortly ...
The greening of our rivers (2) …
This is the second post in a short series, co-written with Bill Brierley, explaining why rivers sometimes turn green, and what this means for the ecosystems they support. The changes we described i…
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Copenhagen Central Station: the last time I was here was 2011 when the Icelandic volcano grounded flights and everyone was making their way home overland. The platform was crowded with people, many clutching H&M carrier bags because we’d all run out of clean undies.
My latest post is co-written with Bill Brierley and is the first of a short series where we try to explain why filamentous algae proliferate in our rivers, and why nutrients are just one component of a more complex problem: bit.ly/4opRFou
The greening of our rivers (1) …
Several posts from this year and last year have addressed the question of why filamentous algae proliferate in rivers (see: “Understanding verdant rivers (I) …” and six subsequent posts, “Blinded b…
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Another post, another new diatom species. This one, though, has been hiding in plain sight for a long time. Sometimes new discoveries just involve rearranging the neurons in our visual cortex and temporal lobe: bit.ly/4pvaFCG
Right under our noses …
I was quite excited by the discovery I wrote about in the previous report. It is not often that we find a new record quite as intriguing as this one, and it captures the essence of my message in “…
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Nature continues to surprise us, and this post describes the discovery of an unusual chrysophyte growing in a chalk stream this summer (I normally associate them with remote mountainous areas in winter): bit.ly/48gEbpD
Stranger things …
As the previous two posts show, those of us who study algae are still apt to be surprised from time to time. This is not a group where basic understanding of organisms and their distribu…
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This summer has turned our rivers into an "all inclusive resort" where algae can sunbath on river beds and generally enjoy life. They are not necessarily a homogeneous mass, and this post describes the variation I found in one river in northern England: bit.ly/4g8dLs1
Long, warm summer days create the perfect conditions for filamentous algae to grow in lakes and rivers. What does this mean for the anticipated spread of data centres to fuel our appetite for AI? bit.ly/4fYxt9J
Blinded by the light …
One of the themes of this blog is of the importance, for an ecologist, of making repeated visits to a site in order to see it in all its moods and tempers. And so it was that I cam…
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