Extracellular polysaccharide substances (EPS) play critical roles in microbial ecology, including the colonization of extreme environments in the ocean, from sea ice to the deep sea. After first developing a sugar-free growth medium, we examined the relative effects of temperature, pressure, and salinity on EPS production (on a per cell basis) by the obligately marine and psychrophilic gamma-proteobacterium, Colwellia psychrerythraea strain 34H. Over growth-permissive temperatures of approximately 10 to -4 degrees C, EPS production did not change, but from -8 to -14 degrees C when samples froze, EPS production rose dramatically. Similarly, at growth-permissive hydrostatic pressures of 1-200 atm (1 atm = 101.325 kPa) (at -1 and 8 degrees C), EPS production was unchanged, but at higher pressures of 400 and 600 atm EPS production rose markedly. In salinity tests at 10-100 parts per million (and -1 and 5 degrees C), EPS production increased at the freshest salinity tested. Extreme environmental conditions thus appear to stimulate EPS production by this strain. Furthermore, strain 34H recovered best from deep-freezing to -80 degrees C (not found for Earthly environments) if first supplemented with a preparation of its own EPS, rather than other cryoprotectants like glycerol, suggesting EPS production as both a survival strategy and source of compounds with potentially novel properties for biotechnological and other applications.