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Cyanobacteria, Yellowstone's Micro-Garden

© Howard Deutch

I have no use for the microscopic flowers on some of the ground hugging weeds in my lawn.You have to get your nose down to them to see. Eventually the weeds spread through reseeding or by runners and create an undesired blotch. Small flowers I have admired include the shooting star I had to get on my knees to really see in a field of alpine flowers off the Beartooth Highway, north of Yellowstone National Park. These single flowers cannot compete, in a way, with the broad splash of bright surface color exhibited by the cyanobacteria found in the roiling waters at Yellowstone. Individually they may be small but they put on a most amazing display of vibrant color, rivaling a field of flowers in full bloom.   The runoff from this geyser is host to a rainbow of infinitesimal organisms living at elevated temperatures deadly to plants and man. Not even resistant woman could withstand temperatures that can exceed 190 F. The thermophilic cyanobacteria at Yellowstone National Park are far more prevalent and colorful than those at Whakarewarewa, Rotorua, in New Zealand's North Island. What struck me there was the steam venting through the grass in front lawns. That and the steaming pools and geysers. Little color however. It is the wide expanse of color and its diversity that catches the eye at  Yellowstone. You do not have to get down on your knees to see it. If you are addicted to broad swatches of color in your garden, this is for you.

Cyanobacteria date to the earliest  living matter on earth. The organism discovered thus far that most closely resembles life's common ancestor is a microbe found in a Yellowstone hot spring. These discoveries have been made much easier by the invention of the polymerase chain reaction, PCR, which is now a standard way to study genetic material on a molecular level. PCR itself was invented with the help of an enzyme extracted from a microbe found in a Yellowstone hot spring.  Biotechnology companies are prospecting Yellowstone to reap this harvest. Some even contribute to the park. The micro-gardens of Yellowstone have helped scientists redefine some basic assumptions about life.We and the plants and the insects are very minor components of the biodiversity of Earth. Microbes rule. 

Each of these garden scenes is made by many many different species of bacteria and archaea. Different species prefer various temperature and chemical levels.

A fact that causes me amazement as well as sadness is that the average visitor to Yellowstone just drives through, stopping only for

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