[3] Recently an isolate of this species was studied by researchers at University of California, Berkeley, as part of a project on the survival of haloarchaea on Mars.

[8] Additionally, biofilms generated by H. volcanii are capable of rapidly producing honeycomb patterns when exposed to changes in humidity.

[4] Due to the salt in method cytoplasmic proteins are structured to fold in the presence of high ionic concentrations.

This structure considerably increases their stability in saline and even high temperature environments but comes at some loss of processivity compared to bacterial homologs.

Haloferax volcanii respire as their sole source of ATP, unlike several other halobateriacae, such as Halobacterium salinarum they are incapable of photophosphorylation as they lack the necessary bacteriorhodopsin.

Their precise role in the ecosystem is uncertain, but the carbohydrates contained within these organisms potentially serve many practical purposes.

As it is likely that H. volcanii and comparable species are ranked among the earliest living organisms, they also provide information related to genetics and evolution.

[12] It is common to find higher numbers of the halophile during the summer, as the Dead Sea is much warmer, averaging around 37 degrees Celsius, and thus more conducive to bacterial blooms.

[13] Unfortunately, the Dead Sea is becoming less hospitable to extremophiles such as H. volcanii due to increasing salinity, credited to both natural factors and human activities.

[15] Electron microscopy experiments have captured images of H. volcanii cells attached to each other via multiple cytoplasmic bridge-like structures[16] and it is thought that this is the apparent method of genetic exchange.

[17] Others have also shown that manipulating environmental salt concentrations,[18] global glycosylation,[18] and cell surface lipidation[19] alter the rate of the genetic transfer.