EMSL Selects Five Projects for MONet Winter Soil Sampling

Five researchers were recently chosen to conduct winter sampling for the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL)’s Molecular Observation (MONet).

The principal investigators and their teams will collect 38 soil cores from tree cover, cropland, and grass/shrub land use in Washington, California, and Colorado. Collected soil samples will be sent to EMSL for analysis using standardized workflows to generate data for the publicly available MONet database.

EMSL, a Department of Energy, Office of Science user facility at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, developed MONet in 2023 to transform the understanding of soil processes by generating molecular and macroscale data to advance a new generation of Earth system process models that cover ecosystems across the United States.

Researchers can submit soil sampling proposals to MONet each quarter. The next proposal call for spring sampling opens Jan. 2.

James Lutz

Utah State University 

Ecoregion: Pacific Northwest

Land Use: Tree Cover

Location: Stabler, WA

Large-diameter trees represent the top 1 percent of trees in the forest. In old-growth Douglas-fir forests, they are larger than 100 cm in diameter and play a crucial role in the function of the forest ecosystem, both above- and belowground, while they are living, after they have died but are still standing, and as they decay on the forest floor. Changes in the tree condition affect the abundance of microbes, alter root structure and soil chemistry, and add a tremendous amount of organic material to the soil as they decompose.

In this MONet project, Utah State University scientist James A. Lutz will identify how belowground soil and microbial characteristics vary across large-diameter Douglas-fir trees at varying stages—alive but in declining health, standing dead, and logs on the ground. Samples collected will help inform future studies of how large-diameter trees influence forest communities and the environment.

Deirdre Griffin-LaHue

Washington State University 

Ecoregion: Pacific Northwest

Land Use: Cropland

Location: Mount Vernon, WA

In northwestern Washington, the market for blemish-free potatoes causes farmers to use intensive tillage, which—coupled with the need to harvest during late fall rains—has resulted in degraded soil structure, declining soil organic matter, and widespread soil compaction.

Washington State University’s Deirdre Griffin-LaHue and a team of researchers are investigating four soil management systems along a gradient of decreasing soil disturbance and increasing organic matter inputs in a crop rotation driven by potatoes. They will evaluate the ability of these practices to improve soil functions, including water supply for plant growth, drainage, residue decomposition, and nutrient release. The research goal is to comprehensively evaluate the mechanistic effects of management-induced changes to soil functioning by integrating data on soil physical, chemical, and biological properties across multiple spatial scales.

Robert Jackson

Stanford University

Ecoregion: Pacific Northwest

Land Use: Cropland

Location: Salinas, CA

In California’s Salinas Valley, excess nitrogen fertilizer used in vegetable cropping systems is posing a threat to surface and groundwater quality, which affects human and environmental health.

A research team led by Stanford University’s Robert Jackson is evaluating the effectiveness of different cover-crop systems to scavenge nitrogen and prevent losses through leaching, runoff, and nitrous oxide emissions. This research aims to connect molecular-level data with answers to broader questions about soil nitrogen dynamics, greenhouse gas production, and carbon sequestration.

Mariah Carbone

Northern Arizona University

Ecoregion: Rockies and Colorado

Land Use: Tree Cover

Location: Crested Butte, CO

In the mountains of the Western United States, snowpack is declining, snowmelt is occurring earlier in the spring, and growing seasons are becoming longer. In a project led by Northern Arizona University’s Mariah Carbone, researchers aim to quantify how the changing cold season is affecting soil carbon dioxide (CO₂) flux and plant and microbial sources in the East River watershed near Crested Butte, Colorado.

Using a network of soil CO₂ flux stations along an elevation gradient of different forest cover types, the research team will gather measurements to improve the representation of belowground processes in models. This research will help scientists predict how East River watershed ecosystems will respond to future environmental change.

Jason Keller

Claremont McKenna College

Ecoregion: Pacific Southwest

Land Use: Grass, Shrub

Location: Claremont, CA

In Southern California, the California sage scrub (CSS) ecosystem is facing increasing pressure from invasion by nonnative vegetation, continued urbanization, and changing fire frequency. Claremont McKenna College’s Jason Keller, in collaboration with Pomona College’s Wallace “Marty” Meyer and a team of undergraduate researchers, is sampling soil from native CSS, including fire-impacted communities, as well as nonnative grassland and nonnative forbland communities (herbaceous-heavy vegetation), at the Robert J. Bernard Biological Field Station in Claremont, California. Samples will be analyzed to determine carbon and nitrogen concentrations and to understand shifts in microbial communities. The project aims to advance research at primarily undergraduate institutions exploring the impacts of plant recovery on ecosystem properties in CSS.