Yellowstone National Park (YNP) 

• Yellowstone National Park is 3,472 square miles - larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined. 

• The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (including Teton National Park and surrounding National Forests) is the largest intact ecosystem in the world’s temperate zone. 

• Yellowstone has the largest concentration of free-roaming wildlife in the lower 48 states. 

• Yellowstone contains the world’s greatest concentration of thermal features; an estimated 10,000 geysers, hot springs, fumaroles and boiling mud pots can be found in the Park. 
 

Thermophilic microorganisms and microbial research in YNP 

•  Thermophilic (‘heat-loving’) microorganisms and other ‘extremophiles’ live in harsh environments such as deep-sea vents, oil wells, Arctic ice, dessicating salt marshes, and hydrothermal areas such as Yellowstone National Park. 

•  Since before the turn of the century, investigators have recognized that the colors and beauty of Yellowstone’s thermal features largely result from the resident thermophilic microorganisms. However, extensive study of Yellowstone’s thermophiles did not begin until the groundbreaking work of Dr. Thomas Brock in the 1960s. Dr. Brock’s discoveries began a tradition of microbial reasearch that continues today with approximately 40 on-going microbiology research projects. 

•  The total number of microbial life forms inhabiting Yellowstone is unknown (the term, ‘species’, is problematic because there is no agreed definition for species at the microbial level.) Currently, the Yellowstone Center for Resources’ (YCR) Thermophilic Microorganism Survey includes more than 40 species of microorganisms. Yet microbiologists estimate that this represents less than 2% of the microbial life forms living in YNP. 

•  Park regulations prohibit the removal of  any object (living or non-living) from the Park without specific authorization issued pursuant to a permit. ‘Research specimen permits’ are issued under 36 CFR 2.5 for scientific work relating to resources found in the Park. Regulations and permit stipulations require that removal of specimens may not cause harm to the environment. 
 
Environmental, Social, and Economic Benefits 

•  Because Yellowstone’s hydrothermal environments are believed to be similar to the conditions under which life might exist on other planets, such as Mars, scientists are studying the Park’s microbial habitats for clues to the possibility of life on other planets. 

•  Research on microorganisms has resulted in practical applications valued in the tens of billions of dollars worldwide. 

•  In the mid-1960s, Dr. Brock discovered the microorganism Thermus aquaticus (Taq) in YNP’s Mushroom Spring. As standard practice in the field of microbiology, Dr. Brock submitted a sample of T. aquaticus to the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), a leading depository of microbiological research materials. Two decades after Brock’s discovery of T. aquaticus, scientists obtained a sample of the microorganism from the ATCC. Research on the microorganism and use of one of its enzymes led to dramatic improvements in the Polymerase Chain Reaction, a Nobel Prize winning invention. The PCR procedure has enabled scientists to replicate and analyze DNA (‘DNA fingerprinting’). In 1989, Science magazine named the enzyme from T. aquaticus “molecule of the year.” A Swiss pharmaceutical firm Hoffman-LaRoche owns the patents on PCR, which reportedly earns hundreds of millions of dollars annually. 

•  PCR has given scientists a new window on the immense diversity of microbial life. For example, PCR was used to reveal the genetic ‘fingerprint’ of the most primitive form of life known — the closest extant relation to the origin of life — an archaebacterium named pJP27. PCR has also revolutionized our understanding of the basic patterns of evolution, changing the way we view the divergent branches of the tree of life.