The use of diatoms in ecotoxicology and bioassessment: Insights, advances and challenges.

Diatoms are regularly used for bioassessment and ecotoxicological studies in relation to environmental and anthropogenic disturbances. Traditional taxonomical diatom parameters (cell counts, biovolume estimates, species richness, diversity indices and metrics using sensitive and tolerant diatom species) are regularly used for these studies. In the same context, very less focus was given on new endpoints of diatoms (life-forms, nuclear anomalies, alteration in photosynthetic apparatus shape, motility, lipid bodies, size reduction and deformities), in spite of their numerous merits, such as, their easiness, quickness, cheapness, global acceptation and no especial training in diatom taxonomy.