Ochrophytes I: Introduction to the Ochrophytes and a Focus on Diatoms

"What in the world are ochrophytes?" you may well ask, since this term has been
only recently suggested, and has been used in a major text for the first time
here. In short, ochrophytes comprise all the pigmented groups of the
heterokonts, including diatoms, chrysophytes, brown algae and many others.
This chapter introduces molecular phylogenetic and cell structure data that
unite ochrophytes, and that define component classes covered in Chapters 12-15.

The rest of this chapter focuses on many aspects of diatoms (though community
ecology and dynamics are considered in Chapter 22). Many micrographs, including
SEM views of both valve and girdle views for several taxa, illustrate the major
frustule features that students must learn in order to tackle diatom identification.