There are a number of reasons why Mono Lake is an ideal site for a Microbial Observatory. Mono Lake is a hydrologically simple system, which makes modeling tractable, yet it contains complex gradients in chemical and physical variables as a result of meromixis. There are ongoing studies of the lake s physics, plankton ecology and biogeochemistry that provide a comprehensive framework for the microbial studies. This change mirrors past, natural events in Great Basin lakes resulting from climate oscillations and similar, if less extreme, changes in physical limnology might be expected in other lakes. Finally, as evidenced by NASA investigations there and a review of the literature, Mono Lake is a good analogue for conditions under which life might have evolved during the early history of Mars or Earth.
Mono Lake represents an extreme environment that is likely to harbor unique microbes.
However, relatively little is known about the types of microorganisms dwelling in Mono Lake, their phylogenetic diversity, taxonomy, ecology or ecophysiology. For example, recent phylogenetic analysis of an important phytoplankter demonstrates it to be a new Class of algae with unusual physiological properties and biochemical composition. The primary goal of the proposed research is to examine the distributions of Mono Lake microbes and to understand the response of microbial assemblages to the gradients of physical and chemical variables in relation to temporal changes driven by hydrodynamics. Home Copyright 1999-2001, Mono Lake Committee .