BTW, the New Scientist paper mentioned [1] in the kottke.com post, refers to Mono Lake [2] here in California as a location they are studying some of this. It's basically on the far side of Yosemete if you are driving from the Bay Area.

If you are at all a bio geek, you really must check it out - it's a low-oxygen, alkali-rich simple ecosystem that supports a clearly visible food chain of about just 5-6 spices. The place is weird, creepy and totally amazing.

What was supposed to be a romantic road trip planned by my girlfriend for my birthday became an unexpected biology field trip.

[1] http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14537-arseniceating-ba..., [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_Lake