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• About life and ecology at high temperatures in Yellowstone National Park.

     News about thermophiles is not a hot topic in the press. It is, however, a growing topic with the research and production of commercial products. This section needs a better presentation format to be both comprehensive and searchable. For now this start will give a glimps of things to come.

THE PRESS

THE PARK

Research on New Life Forms in YNP Receives $500K in Federal Matching Funds January 13, 2009: Yellowstone National Park will receive a half million dollars in federal funds to match a private donation enabling the park to conduct a groundbreaking research project. The federal grant is part of the National Park Service Centennial Challenge, unveiled by Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne at the August 2006 dedication of Yellowstone's new Canyon Visitor Education Center. The initiative is designed to provide millions of dollars in public money to be matched by private donations in each of the ten years leading up to the National Park Service (NPS) Centennial in 2016. The federal funds are being matched by a $500,000 grant from the Yellowstone Park Foundation, made possible by a $1.1 million donation from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation>> http://www.moore.org Yellowstone is one of nine National Park Service sites which receive a total of nearly $27 million to fund projects and programs under the Centennial Challenge in 2009. The money will be used to fund a project expected to discover new life in Yellowstone. The shoreline and bottom of Yellowstone Lake contain hydrothermal vents, which are considered rich habitat for microbes. Scientists believe they may have identified just one percent of all the tiny life forms which live in the lake. They expect to discover new species by looking under a microscope at the cells of the organisms contained in the water samples. They'll also work to uncover genetic information on the newly discovered microbes using DNA tests which originated with a bacterium first discovered in Yellowstone in the 1960s. The results of the research will increase our knowledge of biological diversity and complexity of Yellowstone, and may offer clues leading to better understanding of global environmental issues such as water pollution, deforestation, and climate change. "The Yellowstone Park Foundation recognizes that Yellowstone is a living laboratory and the research done here benefits science worldwide," said Yellowstone Park Foundation President Paul Zambernardi. "We make fundraising for the Park's scientific research needs a priority, and thanks to generous private support from the Moore Foundation, we were able to secure a valuable federal match for this important project," said Zambernardi. The research will be conducted by a public-private partnership between Yellowstone National Park, the U.S. Geological Survey, Eastern Oceanics LLC, Montana State University's Thermal Biology and Big Sky Institutes, and the J. Craig Venter Institute. More information on the Centennial Challenge initiative including details on the other 2009 projects and the 2008 progress report is available online at>> http://www.nps.gov/2016

A new section of the Yellowstone Park Website includes virtual tours of much of the park. The Old Faithful Virtual Visitor Center is a welcome addition to the website as a whole.      The sections on geology, geothermal features, and thermophiles are interesting and informative [LINK].      An excerpt of the site is shown below. MICROENVIRONMENTS In Yellowstone there are three main chemical types of hydrothermal environments that are determined by the rock layers through which the heated ground water passes as it rises to the surface. Different microorganisms thrive in each. Environment Description Alkaline siliceous Water is rich in silica from traveling through rhyolitic lava flows within the Yellowstone caldera. (pH of water: 8-11) Acidic Gases, such as hydrogen sulfide, come into contact with oxygen in the water. Microbes convert the hydrogen sulfide to sulfuric acid. (pH of water: 1-6) Sulfide-rich carbonate The terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs are formed of travertine, a rock made of calcium carbonate. Microbes may convert hydrogen sulfide to sulfuric acid, but the carbonate acts like an antacid. (pH of water: 7) Microbes thrive in each of these environments, but each microbial species requires specific conditions for survival. Therefore, a microbe that is adapted to high levels of hydrogen sulfide may be found near a sulfide-rich source pool, but not downstream where the gas is gone, or in a spring where hydrogen sulfide is absent. Similarly, microbes adapted to low pH conditions are not found in areas that are alkaline. Temperature Each microbe species within a hydrothermal feature has specific temperature requirements. Some live in the hottest water near the hot water source, while others inhabit the cooler runoff channels. The upper temperature ranges of different microbial mats are marked by distinct color changes, forming a living thermometer. In an alkaline siliceous hot spring, for example, pink, pale yellow, or cream colors appear in the hottest areas, green indicates the next warmest areas, then yellow, orange, and brown microbes appear in cooler portions of the runoff channels. Light Different microbes also have varying light requirements. As a microbial mat grows, the microorganisms underneath don't receive as much sunlight. Eventually they die and are replaced by species capable of surviving in less light. Similar to forest ecology, some microbial species thrive in the "canopy" closer to the sunlight, while others flourish in the "under story."

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