Chapter 1
Intro uct on
There are several ways in which the work to be discussed in this book could
be characterized. Studies that attempt to relate the characteristics of organ-
isms to their ecology are best called physiological ecology and much of the
work to be discussed in this book fits under this heading. Another major
theme of this book is biogeochemistry, the study of chemical processes
taking place in nature which are being carried out by living organisms. At
one time, the whole body of work might have been called geobiology;
indeed, the eminent Dutch scientist Baas-Becking once wrote a book with
this title, which included the kinds of things I am going to discuss here.
And
finally, since much of the work deals with the structure, taxonomy, and
biochemistry of microorganisms, it could (perhaps most aptly) be called
general microbiology.
  I was fortunate when my work began that a wide variety of techniques
were available for the sophisticated study of natural ecosystems. Many of
these techniques were not available to earlier workers in the Yellowstone
habitats, which accounts in part for the tremendous amount of new infor-
mation we were able to obtain rapidly. The most important technique was
radioactive tracing, using 14C, 32P, 35S, and 3H. Counting by gas flow or
liquid scintillation counting, or by microscopic autoradiography, made
possible a wide variety of experiments. A Nuclear-Chicago gas flow detec-
tor and scaler was used for most work, but in later years we had a Beckman
Beta-Mate liquid scintillation counter. I also had available a very good
microscope, a Carl Zeiss Universal, with phase, fluorescence, and Nomar-
ski optics. Spectrophotometers are not especially new, but had not been
used in any previous Yellowstone work. We had a B and L Spectronic 20
for routine chlorophyll and chemical assays, and a Beckman DB-G spectro-
photometer, with recorder, for scans. Temperature measurements in the