Volcano fields provide unique ecosystems characterized by early successional stages due to frequent volcanic disturbances. Microorganisms that colonize recent volcanic deposits include extremophiles that can tolerate high heat and acidic conditions. These microbes play important roles in oxidizing gases and preparing the lava and ash for higher life forms through processes like methanogenesis and pedogenesis. Important microbes found in these environments include thermophiles, methanotrophs, sulfur metabolizers, and CO oxidizers.

1. Microbes from valcanos

2. • Introduction
• Volcano fields are unique ecosystems found around the
world’s active volcanoes.
• These environments are characterized by magma and ash
as soil parent material and often exhibit early stages of
succession in an ecosystem.
• Frequent disturbance of volcanic activity can prevent
succession from proceeding to high orders. These eruptions
can produce or displace magma, rock, or ash, depending
on unique characteristics of every volcano or eruption
event.
• These areas are quite special because they represent the
spearhead of geologic time.
• Materials from the earth’s inner layers are introduced to
the lithosphere and atmosphere, which can cause
interesting phenomena among microbial populations.

3. • The microbial populations found in such areas are
categorized by their abilities to process the new or
changed materials on the earth’s surface. Although
disturbance is high right near the source of magma
and ash flows, these flows do not always cover an area
completely, which provides physical, chemical, and
biological diversity between and across sites near a
volcano.
• Microorganisms that occupy these areas are typically
extremophiles that tolerate high heat, and are often
oxidize CO and utilize methanogenesis. These early
processes help prepare the lava and ash deposits to be
suitable to support higher life forms.

4. • Very high concentrations of silicates cause lava to be an
acidic environment, suitable for acidophiles, while less
acidic flows are represented by a lower concentration of
silicate material.
• Microorganisms colonize recent volcanic deposits and are
able to establish diverse communities, their composition is
governed by variations in local deposit parameters.
• Along with solid and liquid rock material ejected by
volcanoes, many gases are ejected and are often trapped in
the solids on the ground once the lava cools.
• These gases can be used by microbes for gas exchange and
metabolic processes. Methane, for example, is common in
erupted material, and is used by methanotrophic bacteria
for energy and carbon uptake.

6. Biological interactions
• Important biological interactions in volcano fields are quite like many
other ecosystem; the microbes and fungi allow plants to utilize nutrients
that would be otherwise inaccessible.
• once microbes change the soils, a process involved in pedogenosis to
support plant life, plants will be able to grow and reproduce, which
allows the primary succession plants to immigrate to the newly formed
soils.
• When plants establish, their roots can break up the volcanic deposits,
allowing more gas-exchange and atmospheric interactions to shape the
composition and structure of the soils. When more air is present in the
volcanic soils, more microbial activity can take place due to the increased
gas exchange capabilities.

7. Microbial process
• CO Oxidation
• Consumption of CO2 by bacteria allows for a balance
between abiotic creation of CO and metabolizing CO.
• Methanotrophy
• Methanotrophs are able to use methane as their
primary source of carbon and energy.
• Sulfur Metabolism
• Bacteria that metabolize sulfur are important to
volcano fields, as sulfur is often brought to the
lithosphere during eruption events.

8. • Extremophiles, and Methanotrophs are two important types of bacteria found
after the lava or ash has cooled. These organisms utilize endospores to face the
extreme heat involved with volcanoes.
• Thermophiles
• Microbes that flourish in extreme heat are known as thermophiles. They can
also be found in Yellowstone Hot Springs and Hydrothermal Vents on the ocean
floor.
• These organisms are often acidophilic, which gives them the ability to occupy
the extremely hot and acidic environment involved near active volcanoes.
• CO Oxidizers
• CO Oxidizers will oxidize carbon monoxide in order to obtain electrons for
energy. These bacteria help maintain the balance of CO in volcanic soils by
acting as a counterpart to abiotic production of CO.
• Methanotrophs
• Methanotrophs metabolize methane as their only source of carbon and energy.
• Sulfur Immobilizers
• Beggiatoa are one genus of proteobacteria that metabolize sulfur for energy.
These organisms play an important role in the sulfur cycle.

9. • Pseudomonas
• Burkholderia
• Mycobacterium
• Beggiatoa
• Acidobilus

10. Microbes from space

11. Microbes from space
• The majority of experiments on microorganisms in space were
performed using Earth-orbiting robotic spacecraft, e.g., the Russian
Foton satellites and the European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) or
human-tended spacecraft, such as space shuttles and space
stations, e.g., MIR and the International Space Station (ISS).
• Only twice, during translunar trips of Apollo 16 and 17 in the
early 1970s, were microorganisms exposed to space conditions
beyond Earth's magnetic shield, in the MEED (microbial ecology
equipment device) facility and in the Biostack experiments.
• Arriving in space without any protection, microorganisms are
confronted with an extremely hostile environment, characterized
by an intense radiation field of galactic and solar origin, high
vacuum, extreme temperatures, and microgravity

12. • Earth's upper atmosphere.
• We first discuss the Earth's environment, from its surface, through the
ozone layer, and up to interplanetary space.
• To understand airborne microbes and the extent to which they may be
found viable, we must know the atmospheric environment.
• The atmosphere is a blanket of gases surrounding Earth that is held in
by gravity.
• The atmosphere protects life on Earth's surface by absorbing
ultraviolet solar radiation warming the surface through heat retention,
and reducing temperature extremes between day and night.
• There is no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer
space.
• With increasing altitude, the atmosphere becomes thinner and
eventually fades away into outer space.
• The temperature of the Earth's atmosphere varies with altitude; the
mathematical relationship between temperature and altitude varies
among the different atmospheric layers. The average temperature of
the atmosphere at the surface of Earth is 15°C

13. • D. radiodurans
• Halorubrum chaoviatoris
• B. subtilis,
• Chroococcidiopsis
• Xanthoria elegans
• Rhizocarpon geographicum
• Pseudomonas aeruginosa
• E. coli
• Staphylococcus sp
• Salmonella sp

14. Yellowstone Hot Springs

15. • What are hot springs?
• Hot springs are geothermal springs that are substantially higher in
temperature than the air temperature of the surrounding region.
• They are everywhere: different countries and areas, even some on
the seafloor
• Creation of Hot Springs
• Hot springs can be created in different ways.
• They can either be created in a volcanic or non-volcanic manner.
• When created in an area near active volcanic zones, like
Yellowstone, water becomes heated as it comes into contact with
magma.
• This superheated water then rises back up, creating either a hot
spring or geyser depending on the rate it rises.
• If it rises back up slowly, it will become a hot spring; if it rises
back up quickly, it will become a geyser.
• When created in non-volcanic areas, water becomes heated as it
comes into contact with hot rocks within the earth's crust. Then the
water will rise back up to create hot springs.

16. • Thermophilic Microbes
• The varieties of microbes found in Yellowstone National Park hot
springs are thermophilic archaea and bacteria.
• Their classification “thermopile” translates literally to “heat
loving”; these organisms can tolerate or even thrive in
temperatures that many organisms are not well adapted to. The
temperature range found at Yellowstone is approximately 30º to
100º C with a variable pH range and low concentration of organic
matter.
• Due to the unique nature of their environment, these thermopiles
have adapted a number of different features to help them survive
in extreme conditions.
• Among the advantages that come with increased temperature are
higher reaction rates, higher solubility of most chemicals, and
increased fluidity and diffusion rates.
• To compensate for the harmful effects of higher temperature,
thermophilic microbes have unique features that allow them to
thrive in their environment. They tend to have a higher melting
temperature due to the high content of C and G nucleotides.

17. • Other common features that allow archaea to live in
extreme environments include cell wall components that
include pseudomurein, special proteins and
polysaccharides.
• Their membrane lipids consist of glycerol and isopranyl
ethers as opposed to the acid esters of bacteria.
• Thermophilic bacteria can generally survive in maximum
temperatures lower than thermophilic archaea.
• The survival mechanisms of bacterial thermophiles could
involve modification of their cell wall (greater charged
amino acids), lipids, and protein compositions.
• They also have modified cellular processes.
• For example, in the Thermus species, the electron
transport chain, when compared to mesophiles, shows a
lower molar growth yield for glucose, possibly explained by
the higher membrane permeability of thermophiles.

18. • Synechococcus
• Chloroflexus
• Phormidium
• Mastigocladus laminosus
• Calothrix
• Synechococcus lividus
• Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicus
• Thermocrinis rubber
• Sulfolobus
• Thermoplasma acidophilum
• Thermus aquaticus

19. Biofertilizer
• Seed treatment :
Suspend 200 gm N biofertilizer and 200 gms Phosphotika
in 300-400 ml of water and mix thoroughly. Mix this
paste with 10 kg seeds & dry in shade. Sow immediately.
• Seedling root dip:
For vegetables 1 kg each of two biofertilisers be mixed in
sufficient quantity of water. Dip the roots of seedlings in
this suspension for 30-40 min before transplanting.
For paddy make a bed in the field and fill it with water.
Mix biofertilisers in water and dip the roots of seedlings
for 8-10 hrs.
• Soil treatment:
Mix 4 kg each of biofertilisers in 200 kg of compost and
leave it overnight. Apply this mixture in the soil at the time
of sowing or planting.In plantation crops apply this
mixture near root zone and cover with soil.

20. • Application of Biofertilizers
• 1. Seed treatment or seed inoculation
2. Seedling root dip
3. Main field application
• Seed treatment
• One packet of the inoculant is mixed with 200 ml of rice kanji to make a
slurry. The seeds required for an acre are mixed in the slurry so as to have
a uniform coating of the inoculant over the seeds and then shade dried for
30 minutes. The shade dried seeds should be sown within 24 hours. One
packet of the inoculant (200 g) is sufficient to treat 10 kg of seeds.
• Seedling root dip
• This method is used for transplanted crops. Two packets of the inoculant
is mixed in 40 litres of water. The root portion of the seedlings required
for an acre is dipped in the mixture for 5 to 10 minutes and then
transplanted.
• Main field application
• Four packets of the inoculant is mixed with 20 kgs of dried and powdered
farm yard manure and then broadcasted in one acre of main field just
before transplanting.