Molecular All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory in Yellowstone Lake

BSI is working to discover new life in Yellowstone, currently focusing on the unique environments of underwater thermal areas in Yellowstone Lake using remote operated vehicles and advanced techniques of DNA analysis. Understanding new life in these extreme environments may provide clues to the origin of life and offer potentially significant applications to society. By increasing our knowledge of all of Yellowstone's life, BSI hopes to understand how ecosystems operate and change over time.

BSI and its partners, including MSU's Thermal Biology Institute and Yellowstone National Park, won a 2 year private foundation grant of $1 million for this project. Summer 2009 marks the second year of fieldwork for this cutting edge research that aims to discover the breadth of life in Yellowstone Lake. During the first year of the study, 260 new species were found!