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NSF PR 97-20 - March 19, 1997
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Environment on Other Planets and Earth One and the
Same?
New NSF Funding Initiative Seeks
Answers
What do boiling-hot fissures in the earth's crust,
the insides of airplane fuel tanks, vast expanses
of ice in Antarctica and the parched sands of baking
deserts have in common with environments on other
planets?
Scientists taking part in a new National Science Foundation
(NSF) funding initiative, Life in Extreme Environments
(LExEn), hope soon to discover answers.
Total funding of $6 million is being provided by NSF's
directorates of biological sciences; engineering;
geosciences; mathematical and physical sciences; and
office of polar programs to explore the relationships
between organisms and the environments in which they
exist. A strong emphasis will be placed on environments
that are near the extremes of conditions on earth.
The program will also fund research about our solar
system and beyond, to help identify possible new sites
for life beyond earth.
Fact: Extreme environments on earth and their
associated life forms currently known to science include:
sandstone rocks and cryptoendolithic organisms (lichens
and cyanobacteria) living in winter temperatures of
minus 45 degrees Centigrade; seafloor hydrothermal
vents and bacterial mats; and ice fields with viable
yeasts found some 2,500 meters deep and 200,000 years
old.
"Life flourishes on the earth in an incredibly wide
range of environments," explains Mike Purdy, coordinator
of the new NSF initiative. "These environments may
be analogous to the harsh conditions that exist now,
or have existed, on Earth and other planets. The study
of microbial life forms and the extreme environments
they inhabit can provide new insights into how these
organisms adapted to diverse environments, and shed
light on the limits within which life can exist."
Fact: Life thrives in such inhospitable places
on earth as hot pools at Yellowstone National Park;
hot acid fields in Iceland; and saline pools in Greece.
"We believe that the study of extreme environments
on earth, and the life they support, is the most effective
way of understanding how and where life may exist
on other planets," says Purdy.
Scientists will study environments such as the earth's
hydrothermal systems, sea ice and ice sheets, anoxic
habitats, hypersaline lakes, high altitude or polar
deserts, and human-engineered environments such as
those created for industrial processes.
Fact: Initial estimates of earth's biomass
beneath its surface exceed that of biomass on its
surface.
Projects will involve finding techniques for isolating
and culturing microbes found in extreme environments,
developing methods of studying these microbes in their
natural habitats, and devising technologies for recovering
non-contaminated samples. Building sensors capable
of probing extreme environments, developing methods
of studying ancient microbial life and paleo-environmental
conditions on earth and researching new ways of studying
other planets are other areas of emphasis.
Fact: Fewer than 3,500 distinct bacteria have
been identified on earth, but estimates are that there
may be a million more types alive today on our planet.
Those already discovered exist at extremes of the
pH scale, in high-salt environments, and at subfreezing
temperatures. Amazingly, oxygen is poisonous to some
of them.
Research supported by LExEn is expected to lead to
the discovery of a diverse group of microorganisms,
say scientists, the lifestyles and biology of which
may now only be guessed at.
Editors: Alternate media contact for projects in polar
sciences and mathematical and physical sciences is
Lynn Simarski, (703) 306-1070, e-mail lsimarsk@nsf.gov.
Alternate media contact for projects in engineering
is George Chartier, (703) 306-1070, e-mail gchartie@nsf.gov.
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