Thermophiles and Extremophiles

Thermophiles and Extremophiles sound like creatures in a Sci Fi movie.

Extremophiles are microbes that live in conditions that were once reasoned to be too extreme for life to exist. Thermophiles, as the name implies, are Extremophiles that love heat. Their colorful pigments show in beautiful yellow, orange and brown colors around hot springs. They make energy from sunlight and are proof that the apparently hostile sulfuric environment can support life.

Within the orange, brown and red colors, some microorganisms exist in communities of thick bacterial mats that have a vertical structure and stratified functions much like a tiny forest. On the “canopy” of the “tiny forest,” microbes get energy from the sun through photosynthesis. Microbes deeper within the “understory” of the “tiny forest” get energy from the chemicals produced by the surface microbes. Decomposition and recycling of nutrients is the job of these understory microbes within the ecosystem.