European Diatom Database-Caspian Saline Lake Dataset

The European Diatom Database (EDDI) is a web-based information system designed
to enhance the application of diatom analysis to problems of surface water
acidification, eutrophication and climate change.

The Caspian dataset consists of 29 benthic and plankton samples lakes in the
Berouskije Bugri area of the Caspian Lowlands, S. Russia. The samples were
collected summer 1996 by K. Labunskaya of the Astrakhan State Technical
University and Steve Juggins, and diatoms were counted by Jane Reed. The
dataset spans a gradient from permanent slightly brackish lakes (salinity < 2
g/l) to shallow, ephemeral hypersaline saline playas (salinity > 100 g/l). The
majority of lakes are of the NaMg-Cl brine types, although sulphate is an
important secondary anion for five sites, and three sites show elevated calcium
concentrations. Although there is a very strong relationship between diatom
composition and salinity this dataset is considered too small to use for a
local transfer function and so samples are only used in the larger combined
Salinity transfer function.