Eric Boyd

Researcher hopes to unlock secrets of geothermal hotbeds

Eric Boyd’s fascination with geothermal springs—those often colorful, percolating pools of mineral-rich water—was sparked as a youngster on family camping trips to Yellowstone National Park.

“We always went out West on summer vacations; it was neat going camping in Yellowstone or the Black Hills in North Dakota,” Boyd said, who grew up in Des Moines, Iowa. “I was really young the first time I remember going to Yellowstone. I was five or six years old and just remember the colors associated with the springs.”

Little did Boyd know that those early family camping trips would serve as a springboard to a career as a scientist and researcher in Yellowstone and other geothermal hotspots out west.

“Family vacations to various locations in the west, including Yellowstone National Park, really helped shape my interests in my furthering my education in the interplay between geological processes and biological processes. I feel very fortunate to have the upbringing I did,” Boyd said.

The 31-year-old Boyd went on to receive an undergraduate degree in biology from Iowa State and then earned his Ph.D. in microbiology from Montana State.

His on-going research at Yellowstone and surrounding areas is funded by the NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (NPP)—a competitive grant he received in 2009 that will continue through early 2011—which is managed by Oak Ridge Associated Universities, a university consortium that leverages the scientific strength of 98 major research institutions to advance science and education by partnering with national laboratories, government agencies and private industry.

“My NPP-funded research is focused on developing a basic understanding of the abilities of microorganisms to not only survive in environments considered to be inhospitable to life, but to thrive in these environments,” Boyd said. “Such environments include the sub-ice environment beneath glaciers and the diverse geothermal features in Yellowstone.”

Boyd said Yellowstone springs vary wildly in temperature, ranging from 70 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. He also said the springs also run the gamut of the pH scale. “The chemical and physical diversity of the springs is remarkable,” he added.

Boyd said the vivid colors of the springs offer tell-tale signs of their composition. For example, reds usually correspond to iron-oxides, oranges to arsenic and yellows to sulfur.

In addition to his studies of Wyoming’s geysers, hot springs, mud pots and fumaroles, Boyd’s research has taken him to alpine environments in Montana and Canada, and saltwater and freshwater venues in Mexico.

“In particular, I am interested in the ecology and evolution of a group of organisms named archaea,” Boyd said. “These organisms thrive in hostile environments on Earth that few other life forms can inhabit and are considered by many to have originated on Earth very shortly after it was formed. Many of the environments where these organisms thrive are considered by many to be analogous to environments which we find on Mars and likely other planetary bodies.

“As an example, my research on archaea inhabiting sub-glacial environments that generate methane gas as a byproduct of their metabolism will provide unique insight into the potential for this group of organism to inhabit sub-ice environments on Mars, environments that have recently been shown by NASA scientists to release large plumes of methane,” he said.

Ultimately, Boyd said he hopes his research on the microorganisms that inhabit geothermal springs will offer clues to the evolution of life on Earth—and provide clues to organisms that may have inhabited now-extinct geothermal areas on Mars.