Yellowstone Acid Pools
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Description of Niche
Introduction
Yellowstone National Park located in the states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho is known for its great wildlife diversity as well as it unique geothermal features. One of the most prominent and interesting sites within the park are the acid pools. Their high acid levels and their great bacteria and microorganism diversity characterize these pools. Among the acid pools located in Yellowstone National Park include the Norris Geyser Basin, Beowulf, and Dragon Springs. Recently, the study of microorganisms within these pools have come into interest due to their unique biochemistry. These extremophiles have many useful applications to society and are especially important to other microorganisms inhabiting the same environment. Undoubtedly, the acid pools in Yellowstone National Park have become excellent tourist attractions not only due to their bright and vivid colors, but also for the great diversity of microorganisms that inhabit this extreme environment.
Location
Physical Conditions
This thermoacidophilic niche is typically located in aquatic environments with high moisture content, including various geothermal hot springs and volcanic mud pools. The niche is adapted to highly acidic environments, generally with a pH of less than 3. Due to active volcanic activities in the area, the springs and pools in which the acidophilic niche is found are typically of fairly high temperature, usually ranging from 65 to 90 degrees Celsius. The niche is typically immersed in pools with high sulfur contents, either as hydrogen sulfide (H2S(g)) emitted as a volcanic gas, or as elemental sulfur crystals. Some niches are also found in pools rich with other metals, typically iron (1).
Influence by Adjacent Communities (if any)
Is your niche close to another niche or influenced by another community of organisms?
Conditions under which the environment changes
Do any of the physical conditions change? Are there chemicals, other organisms, nutrients, etc. that might change the community of your niche.
Who lives there?
Which microbes are present?
You may refer to organisms by genus or by genus and species, depending upon how detailed the your information might be. If there is already a microbewiki page describing that organism, make a link to it.
Presence of Non-microbe
Most archaea are thermophiles, meaning they thrive on extremely hot and acidic conditions like those in Yellowstone Park acid pools. And like most living things, archaea have viruses that can replicate within them. Studies have shown that lysogenic viruses thrive on the Sulfolobus bacteria whose ability to tolerate hot and acidic conditions makes them a hospitable host.
Plants? Animals? Fungi? etc.
Do the microbes that are present interact with each other?
Describe any negative (competition) or positive (symbiosis) behavior
Do the microbes change their environment?
Do they alter pH, attach to surfaces, secrete anything, etc. etc.
Do the microbes carry out any metabolism that affects their environment?
Do they ferment sugars to produce acid, break down large molecules, fix nitrogen, etc. etc.
Biotechnology
Current Research
Enter summaries of the most recent research. You may find it more appropriate to include this as a subsection under several of your other sections rather than separately here at the end. You should include at least FOUR topics of research and summarize each in terms of the question being asked, the results so far, and the topics for future study. (more will be expected from larger groups than from smaller groups)
Viral phage as mobile genetic material
The diversity of Sulfolobus spindled-shaped viruses (SSVs) and Sulfolobus islandicus rod-shaped viruses (SIRVs), which are virus types that are genus-specific for Yellowstone-dwelling sulfolobus species, was monitored over a 2-year period of time. Comparison of amplified viral DNA sequences indicated that viral movement and immigration, rather than mutation, contributes to the high local population diversity even though the viral host sulfolobus is confined within specific geographic barriers (different thermoacidic pools). This result is significant as SSVs and SIRVs exhibit physical structures similar to that of bacteriophages and human viral pathogens. Researching of this rapid viral movement can provide significant information regarding virus circulation as well as the potential use of the viruses as mobile genetic material (3).
Role of Viruses in Microbe Populations
The acid pools located in Yellowstone National Park are noted and distinctive due to their geothermal features. In specific, their high acidity and temperature give rise to a diverse and varied microbe population who possess unique capabilities. Recently, scientists have hypothesized that the virus population in these acid pools are actually responsible for controlling the microbe population. Most viruses would perish under the extreme environmental conditions that these acid pools present, however they find refuge within common bacteria such as Sulfolobus who are able to withstand the high acidity and temperature. By living within these host bacteria, viruses are able to continue to replicate and thrive under the harshest conditions. Furthermore, scientists have discovered that while microbe populations stay relatively constant between different acid pools, the population of viruses fluctuates tremendously. This observation suggest that the viruses somehow control the population of certain microbes within these acid pools. The next question scientists inquired concerned about how these viruses are able to relocate and migrate to different acid pools, which sometimes covered long distances. It has been recently proposed that the viruses travel through the steam that these pools produce as a result of extremely high temperatures. Right now, scientists have been committed to obtaining and unlocking the genomes of the many microorganisms that live within the acid pools in hopes of uncovering and understanding how they all interact with each other. (4)
References
4. http://www.inl.gov/featurestories/2007-10-23.shtml
Edited by [Weiqin Fang, Ka Kong, Chasen Mock, and Shin Trieu], students of Rachel Larsen
