Five Researchers Selected for MONet Spring Soil Sampling
Fifty-four soil cores will be collected across the continental United States
(Five researchers were selected by the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory to collect 54 soil cores this spring to contribute to the Molecular Observation Network. Graphic by Genoa Johnson | Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory)
The Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) selected five researchers to conduct spring soil sampling projects for the Molecular Observation Network (MONet).
The principal investigators and their research teams will collect 54 soil cores from wetlands, tree cover, cropland, and grass/shrub land use. The soil cores will be sent to EMSL for analysis 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 MONet proposal call for summer sampling opens March 18.
Meet this spring’s awardees.
Matt Kaufman
Worcester State University
Ecoregion: Northeast
Land use: Tree cover, urban, and developed
Location: Worcester and Petersham, MA
A research team made up of faculty and undergrade students from Worcester State University will sample soils from hilltop, hillslope, and valley-bottom sites in three different regions across an urbanization gradient in central and western Massachusetts to better understand how urban soils are affected by anthropogenic perturbations. The team aims to help landowners and stakeholders in the greater Worcester area understand and quantify the differences between urbanized and forested region soils.
Kalpana Kukreja
University of Texas at El Paso
Ecoregion: Desert Southwest
Land use: Grass, shrub
Location: Las Cruces, NM
In this MONet project, University of Texas at El Paso researchers will sample soil in the Dryland Critical Zone Collaborative Network in New Mexico to explore the distribution of known bacteria and fungi linked to the production of organic acids. Researchers also want to identify other soil metabolites that help plants, microbes, and biocrusts acquire phosphorus (P) and determine if natural drylands with supplemental P (fertilizer) will impact soil metabolites.
Lori Sutter
University of North Carolina Wilmington
Ecoregion: Mid-Atlantic
Land use: Wetland
Location: Wilmington, NC
A research team from the University of North Carolina Wilmington is sampling wetlands and saline marshlands along a spatial gradient within the Cape Fear River in Wilmington, NC, to improve the understanding of wetland soil processes. The team is interested in comparing microbial- and plant-driven ecosystem function across similar sites with distinct salinity and tidal conditions, determining key metabolites and osmolytes produced and exchanged between plants and microbes at each site, and studying seasonal shifts to develop changing conditions in this region.
Udaya Kalluri
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Ecoregion: Pacific Northwest
Land use: Tree cover
Location: Midland, OR
In this project led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Kalluri and research team aim to generate a new understanding of bioenergy plant–soil interactions under field conditions and develop new modeling approaches to predict productivity and soil health. Researchers will collect soil samples and characterize chemistry and porosity as part of a pilot field sampling campaign at the bioenergy plantations.
Alexandra Kravchenko
Michigan State University
Ecoregion: Great Lakes
Land use: Cropland
Location: Hickory Corners, MI
Researchers from Michigan State University will sample an annual bioenergy crop (energy sorghum), a perennial monoculture (switchgrass), a perennial polyculture (restored prairie), and a fast-growing woody species (poplar) to obtain high-resolution molecular, microbial, and structural data from the soil. Under these long-term bioenergy cropping systems, the goal is to understand their microscale interactions leading to the accrual of soil carbon. A dataset from these model bioenergy crop production systems would be most instrumental for developing next-generation large-scale system models for bioenergy cropping systems.