Institute for Watershed Studies
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The IWS Image Library contains a searchable database of images for aquatic organisms from the Pacific Northwest. These images may be used for noncommercial, educational purposes as described in our license agreement.
The database of images is organized in a rough taxonomic hierarchy. This is not meant to be scientifically complete, but to group the images into convenient categories. The complete taxonomic tree can be seen here, and thumbnails of the images can be browsed here. Clicking on a taxonomic name, for example, Insecta, will limit the displayed images to only that category.
The taxonomic tree is divided into five basic categories:
Animalia
(aquatic invertebrates such as insects, snails, segmented worms, etc.)
Bacteria
(aquatic bacteria including cyanobacteria or blue green "algae")
Chromista
(diatoms, chrysophytes or "golden" algae, and some types of aquatic fungi)
Plantae
(aquatic and semi-aquatic plants; green and red algae)
Protozoa
(amoebas, ciliates, dinoflagellates, and euglenoids)
High resolution digital images are available for many of the organisms shown in the Image Library.
Because of their size, these files are not available online.
For information about availibility of high resolution digital images, please contact the
IWS Director.
Taxonomic identification of these images is provided as a public service. All best efforts are made to provide accurate classifications based on the SP2000 taxonomic hierarchy. We are not taxonomy specialists, however, and if you see any mistakes, or even if you are doubtful about something and would like to talk it over, please contact the IWS Director. We also welcome confirmation of taxonomic identifications and will add appropriate citations to the image comments.
