How to contribute

Nordic Microalgae caters for scientists and persons involved in environmental monitoring of aquatic microalgae and related organisms in the Nordic area. This includes the Baltic Sea, the North East Atlantic and lakes, rivers and streams in the area. The web site is maintained by active biologists in the area. Experts on the different groups of organisms maintain the species lists and the other information on taxon sheets. Anyone with illustrative images, videos and other material is welcome to contribute. Since Nordic Microalgae is user driven your contribution is very important. There are four types of users/contributors to Nordic Microalgae

  1. Anyone using the internet can browse the web site and download species lists and images (with copyright restrictions)
  2. Contributors of images and videos can upload images and videos, add texts about the images and edit and delete his or her own material – a username and password is needed
  3. A smaller group of ”experts” can in addition edit information about species
  4. Nordic Microalgae administrators can edit everything and also add and delete species names

How to get a user identity and a password

To contribute images you need to be a registered user. To register please send an e-mail to nordicmicroalgae@smhi.se and we will send you a registration template as soon as possible, usually within hours. If you do not hear from us within 3 workdays, please let us know.

Step by step guides

How to contrbitute images. Download pdf How to create YouTube account and Upload videos. Download pdf

About contribution of images

Please contribute images for any organism in Nordic Microalgae. There is no restriction of the number of images per taxon but more than ten is seldom useful. Most important are images of organisms that are not yet well illustrated. Before you consider contribution make sure that you understand the implications for copyright holders by reading the Copyright notice. All types of high quality images are requested, e.g.

  • Images of the whole organism
  • Images showing details important for identification
  • Images showing interesting behaviour
  • Images of live organisms as well as organisms preserved with different preservatives (Lugol’s, formalin, glutardialdehyde etc.)
  • Images obtained using different techniques for contrast enhancement, e.g. phase contrast, interference contrast and standard light microscopy
  • Images of organisms observed in the fluorescence microscope
  • Images showing natural fluorescence and/or fluorescence from different stains such as DAPI, Calcofluor etc.
  • Images of organisms observed in the electron microscope

It is also useful showing an organism at different focus levels. Taking several photographs at different z-level (focus) and stitching them together in the computer is one way to achieve a useful film. Please use arrows and other markers where appropriate. Scale bars are very useful in images.

About manipulations of images and video

With the software and computers available today it is tempting to manipulate images to make them “better” or more “beautiful” in some way. This is allowed for images contributed to Nordic Microalgae but it must be clearly stated in the caption for the image that it has been manipulated. Contrast adjustments etc. to make images more similar to what you see in the microscope are not considered manipulations.

Change history

Please note that all changes in Nordic Microalgae, e.g. the addition of images and changes in texts on taxon sheets are recorded. The records can be found at the end of each taxon sheet. The latest added images show up on the start page.