Live protist curation at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, 1884–2017

Abstract

Understanding and exploiting marine microbial biodiversity is a huge task. Integral to this is the capacity to identify and maintain exemplar taxa ex situ, so that they may be studied or utilized. This paper focuses on protists, primarily photosynthetic protists, including microalgae and macroalgae, as well as the prokaryotic cyanobacteria. It draws together the strands of activities undertaken by scientists in the fields of taxonomy, systematics and algal cultivation associated with the Scottish Association for Marine Science at Oban and its predecessors: the Scottish Marine Station, originally located on a converted lighter, The Ark, in a flooded quarry in Granton near Edinburgh, then subsequently at Millport on the Clyde; the Marine Biological Association – West Scotland at Millport; and the Scottish Marine Biological Association, founded in 1914, initially at Millport and subsequently at Dunstaffnage, Oban. The work undertaken is interwoven with the historical status and development of protistan curation over the past 130 years. The paper also examines the inter-linkages of the organization with the development of cultivation techniques and the provision of biological resources from 1914 by the then newly established Scottish Marine Biological Association to the Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa today. Finally, we briefly outline current developments that will influence the curation and scientific exploitation of these diverse organisms in the future.