On Monday, NASA announced the discovery of two new categories of microbial life which seem to enjoy feasting on fossil fuels like gasoline and diesel. Scientists are examining if the newly found bacteria could perhaps clean up harmful toxins from the oceans. Among them is Kenneth Cullings, an ecologist and a member of the Santa Barbara nonprofit organization CLAWS, the Committees for Land, Air, Water and Species.
Cullings is a senior research ecologist with NASA’s environmental group and was exploring the Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park when he came across the fungus Pisolithus arhizus. The basin is home to soil with a high concentration of sulfur and other toxins, as well as some of the tallest acid geysers in the world. For 50 years, P. arhizus has been known to oxidize sulfur, but the discovery of the new bacteria inside the fungus challenges that idea.
“The question is, who’s really doing the work? Is it the fungus, or the bacteria inside?” Cullings asked. “Since we’ve just started looking at the bacteria inside these things, there’s a whole world of potential agents that might be at work here.”