Drake High's Worldwide Artificial Hypoliths Project

(See this project featured on NASA's web site)

Namibia (Africa) Gobabeb Centre/Namib-Naukluft National Park Lat. 23º 33’ South, Long. 15º 08’ East Deployed April 2010	White Mountains (California, USA) Univ. of California White Mountain Research Station Lat. 37º 35’ North, Long. 118º 14’ West Deployed October 2010	Devon Island (Nunavut, Arctic Canada) Haughton Mars Project Lat. 75º 26’ North, Long. 89º 52’ West Deployed July 2010
Mojave Desert  (California, USA) California State University Desert Studies Center Lat. 35º 09’ North, Long. 115º 48’ West Deployed April 2011	Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) Near Jebel Hafeet Lat. 24º 02’ North, Long. 55º 48’ East Deployed February 2011	Coming soon: Artarctica: McMurdo Dry Valleys Atacama Desert (Chile) Western Australia

Mountaintops, deserts and polar regions have a lot in common:

They are extreme environments that appear hostile to life at first, but are full of hidden surprises,
They have beautiful, other-worldly landscapes, remote and empty,
They are fragile environments sensitive to climate change,
And, they all have hypolithic cyanobacteria.

Letf: Hypolithic cyanobacteria under quartz rocks in California's White Mountains (elevation 12,500') Right: Their habitat

Astrobiology includes the study of life in extreme environments in order to understand how to find life on other planets, like Mars. Cyanobacteria are some of Earth’s oldest, simplest and toughest microorganisms. They live in lots of places, not just in extreme environments.

However, wherever conditions get really tough you find them under rocks ("hypolithic" = "under rocks.") Hypolithic cyanobacteria are best known from the Arctic (Devon and Cornwallis Islands) and the Antarctic Dry Valleys.

They prefer translucent rocks like quartz and marble. The rock acts like a little greenhouse window, transmitting some visible light but blocking a lot of the harsh ultraviolet light that can harm living cells. The rocks also trap moisture under them, and protect the cells underneath from extremes of heat and cold.

There's a lot that isn't known about hypoliths. Their growth is difficult to quantify, since it responds to the contours of each rock. However, if you place pre-cut rocks of standardized dimensions in extreme environments, you can rigorously control for variables like light transmission, surface composition and roughness, starting inoculations, and time.

This project has management implications for areas containing hypoliths. When you scuff a quartz pebble with your hiking boots and turn it over, how long does it take for the new lower side to become colonized with a new layer of cells? If the answer is "centuries" then human activities in the area need to be restricted more than if the answer is "a few months."

Starting in 2010, Sir Francis Drake High School has begun to deploy an array of artificial hypoliths in extreme locations around the world. Each of these arrays was personally placed in the field by a teacher or student from Drake High. Each array is approximately one square meter in area and includes sixty stones. The "stones" are glass, marble and travertine tiles from building supply stores. They have standard dimensions. Variables include:

Light transmission (3 levels),
Innoculated with local cells vs. sterile when placed into the environment,
Hot deserts vs. cold ones.
Time.

Places we have put them:
California's White Mountain Peak, Canada's Devon Island, Namibia, Abu Dhabi, the Mojave Desert.

Places we hope to put them:
Antarctica, Australia, the Atacama.

Lots of people and organizations have helped us:

This project resulted from NASA's Spaceward Bound program, in particular the Mojave 2009 and Namib 2010 expeditions.

We are indebted to NASA scientist Dr. Chris McKay, Dr. Henry Sun of Nevada's Desert Research Institute, and Professor Donald Cowan of the University of the Western Cape in South Africa for teaching us about hypoliths.

We are indebted to Dr. Pascal Lee and Ms. Kira Lorber of the Haughton Mars Project for hosting us at Devon Island and encouraging us to place an array there.

We are grateful to NASA, the Haughton Mars Project and the Drake Fund for logistical and financial support for this project, and to our Principal Mr. Don Drake for his support and confidence in us.

Twenty Five Company in Novato, California (Formerly Marin Tile Supply) provided the marble and travertine tiles for this project.

Below are some pics of Drake students preparing artificial hypoliths which were depolyed by Michael Wing in the Namib Desert, April 2010 at 23 degrees, 33 minutes South, 15 degrees 8 minutes East.

	This project was reported in a South African newspaper with a circulation of 250,000. Click here to see the relevant page of the article.