ENHS Nature Trails January 2001 Article 1

This month's speaker: Dr. Richard Castenholz

Our speaker this month has been to some pretty fantastic places in his study of the bacteria, algae, cyanobacteria, purple sulfur bacteria, and other tiny and usually slimy things that grow in hot springs. These microorganisms have been in the nature news lately because of a re-activation of the theory that life began in hot springs. Early life must then have been subject to the conditions under which these modern day life forms grow. So, understanding the modern life forms would give you an idea of life on earth in its first billion years or so. Nature Trails asked Dr. Castenholz our usual questions:

Were you interested in nature as a child?
No parental influence, but went to N. Wisconsin most summers: 11 to 17 year old for 2 weeks to stay with my father's cousin and husband at end of trail in North Woods. Husband was a past German forester and was a naturalist. It was he who trained me in observing animals and plants (including aquatic plants). In the Chicago area where I grew up I became an avid bird watcher during high school years with 4 best friends. We organized a nature club (the five of us) and reported on different groups of organisms each week. In high school I took year of geology, a year of zoology, and a year of botany. I did drawings of algae for the botany teacher's laboratory manual--that is where interest in algae began.

Did you have any landmark experiences as a child?
Came in second in annual bird list (Chicago Ornithological Society) when I was 16.

Any memorable travels as a child?
We traveled all over the West (from Chicago) when I was 7; decided then to live west of the Rockies when I grew up.

How did you come to be doing what you are doing today?
I went to Univ. of Michigan to major in wildlife management when I was 17, but first year botany courses (including Systematic Botany) really caught my interest, and I changed to a Botany major. During sophomore year took aquatic plant course and algae course, and decided that latter was my main area of interest. Took two other algae courses there from W.R. Taylor and then 2 summer algae courses at Michigan Biological Station from G.M. Smith (world authority on freshwater algae). I decided to go on to graduate work; thought that teaching would be a good profession.
Graduated in 1952, and did one year graduate work in marine botany at University of Miami; then to Washington State University for 4 years where I worked on the seasonal distributions of diatoms in the Grand Coulee lakes for the Ph.D. thesis.
After receiving the degree I came directly to the U. of Oregon as assistant professor and have been here ever since (43 years with 6 sabbaticals --2 to Norway, 2 to New Zealand, 1 to France and 1 at home). Only two jobs available in 1957 in my field; I was lucky to get the one at Oregon. I have taught algae courses, freshwater ecology, and microbiology courses many times, in addition to other beginning biology courses in the past.

What are you going to talk about?
I will cover the following: By extreme environments I mean habitats in which only microorganisms can survive and thrive. The severe stresses I will talk about are high temperature (organisms of hot springs), low temperatures (organisms of extreme cold, e.g. Antarctica), extreme salt concentrations, and the stress of ultra-violet radiation. It will be a slide show.

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