Photographs    

All photographs: copyright E. I. Friedmann

Ross Desert (McMurdo Dry Valleys), Antarctica

Battleship promontory

Vestal Ridge

University Valley

Colored zones produced by cryptoendolithic (= "hidden inside rocks") microorganisms living under the rock crust of sandstone.

Scanning electron micrograph of cryptoendolithic microorganisms inside the rock: microscopic fungi and algae forming a lichen.

Hemichloris antarctica, an endemic (= found only at this locality) green alga, in culture.

Negev Desert, Israel

Timna National Park.

Cryptoendolithic microorganisms under the rock crust of sandstone.

Scanning electron micrograph of the cryptoendolithic cyanobacterium Chroococcus turgidus

inside the rock, attached to crystals.

Chroococcus turgidus in culture.

Gobi Desert, Mongolia

Landscape.

Desert pavement. Under translucent stones, hypolithic (= "under stones") cyanobacteria can photosynthesize and are important primary producers. Scale: 10 cm.

Close-up of a colonized stone, overturned to show green cyanobacterial growth (Chroococcidiopsis sp.) on the lower surface.

Chroococcidiopsis sp., a primitive cyanobacterium widespread in all desert areas of the world.

Atacama desert, Chile

Landscape. There are no cyanobacteria under stones of the desert pavement in this extremely dry desert.

N.E. Siberia (Yakutia), Russia

Landscape

Drilling for permafrost bacteria. Dr. David Gilichinsky (Russian Academy of Sciences) and assistant.