Diatoms account for twenty-three percent of the primary productivity of the world.
Meaning that all the photosynthesis going on at any time, almost one-quarter of it is happening inside a diatoms. For this project, diatoms was collected from the two ecosystem Hall's and Symonds creek located in the vicinity of Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Preparations of slides will be made following different techniques used such as the glowing method, oxidation with hydrogen peroixde, soap method and the sulfuric acid method. Population of the diatoms per milliliter of water will be determined by direct counting. The detailed in the publication entitled Diatoms of North America by William C. Vinyard.