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Hot Spring Microbial Zonation

Interactive 3D hot spring simulator: adjust vent source temperature and watch concentric bands of pigmented extremophile microorganisms appear, shift and vanish along the outward-cooling thermal gradient, with a live temperature-vs-distance cross-section graph.

Ecology & Conservation Biology3DModerate60 FPS

Hot springs like Yellowstone's Grand Prismatic host concentric rings of extremophile microbes, each tolerating a narrow, non-overlapping temperature range and producing its own characteristic pigment. This simulator models the outward-cooling thermal gradient from a scalding central vent and shows, in real time, how each species' band shifts, appears or disappears as you change the vent's source temperature and runoff flow rate — with a live cross-section graph aligning every band's position to its temperature tolerance.

⚙ Under the hood

Adjust a hot spring vent's source temperature and flow rate and watch concentric bands of pigmented extremophile microbes appear, shift and vanish along the outward-cooling thermal gradient, with a live temperature-vs-distance graph aligning each species' band to its tolerance range.

ecologyextremophileshot springthermophilemicrobial matYellowstonetemperature gradientpigmentation

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install