Projects

Biogeochemical controls on dissolved organic carbon production and degradation in tidal marshes

Lead Institution

College of William and Mary

Principal Investigator

Bongkeun Song

Project type

MONet

The overarching objective of our ongoing research is to determine environmental (biotic and abiotic) controls on organic matter (OM) production and decomposition in tidal marsh soils along an…

Midgley MONet Request

Lead Institution

The Morton Arboretum

Principal Investigator

Meghan Midgley

Project type

MONet

Using a series of mature, mono-specific forestry plots, our collaborative team here at The Morton Arboretum together with our partners outside the Arboretum are addressing interdisciplinary questions…

Soil Function Across Variably Inundated Environments - Tidal Systems

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Peter Regier

Project type

MONet

We aim to generate knowledge, data, and models that are transferable across Earth’s variably inundated ecosystems. We are focused on the integrated hydro-biogeochemistry of soils in these diverse…

NEON Contract FY24

Lead Institution

Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Sarah Leichty

Project type

MONet

MONet has an ILA in place to obtain the services of BCO who operates the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) for a soil sampling effort of terrestrial field sites. BCO will obtain soil…

MONet Test Samples for Analytics

Lead Institution

Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Sarah Leichty

Project type

MONet

A key aspect of MONet is incorporating biogeochemical and microbial process data streams to facilitate parameterization of key variables of multiscale models with eventual coupling to larger-scale…

Imaging the Spatial Effects of Hydraulic Redistribution on Root Exudation

Lead Institution

University at Buffalo, State University of New York

Principal Investigator

Richard Marinos

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The overall aim of the proposed research is to understand how plant hydraulic redistribution (HR) changes root exudation of biomolecules to the rhizosphere. HR is the flux of water from wet soil to…

Microbial diversity, complexity, and dynamics within a ‘grass-to-glass’ profile at a late iron age archaeological site, and as a function of climatic variables

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Carolyn Pearce

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

We propose to systematically analyze the microbial consortia that are enriched on rock surfaces as a function of depth through a ‘grass-to-glass’ profile using samples obtained during the excavation…

Real-time detection of biogeochemical hotspots within saturated sediments

Lead Institution

Boise State University

Principal Investigator

Kevin Roche

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Saturated sediments are hotspots of biogeochemical reactivity in river corridors. High reactivity is promoted by the exchange of surface water and groundwater within the hyporheic zone, as well as by…

Linking biotic drivers of soil structure to solute flows through soil profiles

Lead Institution

University of Kansas

Principal Investigator

Sharon Billings

Project type

MONet

Recent work highlights the powerful role that biota (here, roots and the microbes that surround them) play in governing soil structure over timescales much shorter than previously assumed. If robust…

iTopS: integrative topological scores with functional molecular modeling

Lead Institution

University of Kansas Medical Center

Principal Investigator

Mihaela Sardiu

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The objective of this project is to produce a novel computational prototype to synthesize and visualize the structural models of higher-order protein complexes derived from the existing empirical…

Molecular scale investigations of the interaction of soil organic N with soil minerals

Lead Institution

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Yuan Liu

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The association of organic nitrogen (N) compounds with soil minerals is an important mechanism for determining the long-term persistence of N in soils and N bioavailability. Mounting evidence points…

Absolute quantification of components of the algal photosynthetic apparatus in response to environment and modification of chlorophyll biosynthesis

Lead Institution

University of California, Berkeley

Principal Investigator

Sabeeha Merchant

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The operation of the photosynthetic apparatus is influenced by environment, particularly stress situations like poor iron nutrition, carbon or light limitation, and excess excitation energy, which…

Scale-bridging soil imaging and modeling using physics-informed machine learning

Lead Institution

University of Houston

Principal Investigator

Kalyana Nakshatrala

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

This project develops a physics-informed machine learning (PIML) methodology to upscale soil structural information (e.g., X-ray and microscopy images) to continuum-scale process models (e.g., DOE…

Soil-based carbon dioxide sorption: Image analysis, numerical modeling, and deep learning

Lead Institution

Kansas State University

Principal Investigator

Behzad Ghanbarian

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Soils, particularly near the earth surface, are composed of rich nutrients from organic plant materials and animal matter. It is believed that soils, especially agricultural soils, can adsorb carbon…

Investigation of Copper Binding in A Metal-chelating Plant Protein

Lead Institution

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

Principal Investigator

Ritimukta Sarangi

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Cellular metal chelation is a vital plant stress response mechanism that enables plants to survive in metal-polluted soils, which could be valuable in crop engineering for agricultural use and…

Visualizing the cellular and molecular bases underlying desiccation tolerance.

Lead Institution

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Principal Investigator

Marisa Otegui

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Organisms depend on water for survival. Understanding desiccation tolerance mechanisms is critical for the reproduction of grass bioenergy crops, whose pollen grains are dispersed by air and able to…

Epidermal plastid reprograming during microbial colonization

Lead Institution

University of Chicago

Principal Investigator

Jean Greenberg

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Plant epidermal cells serve as a barrier between them and their surroundings as well as key interaction interfaces between plants and beneficial microbes. Epidermal plastids of leaves and the small…

Characterizing physical and molecular interactions of engineered nitrogen fixing bacterial inoculants with wheat roots and synthetic soil

Lead Institution

Pivot Bio, Inc.

Principal Investigator

Jennifer Teschler

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Nitrogen fixing soil bacteria can provide plants with reduced nitrogen, an essential nutrient, and offer an ecological alternative to synthetic fertilizers, reducing leaching, denitrification, and…

Characterising the polluted dust layers reaching Himalayas: Size segregated chemical speciation, optical properties and mixing state of aerosol mixtures

Lead Institution

Indian Institute of Technology, Madras

Principal Investigator

Chandan Sarangi

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Atmospheric aerosols are composite of various emission sources and exist in a combination of individual particles (external mixing) as well as particle with more than one component (internal mixing)…

The role of biopolymers in controlling kinetics of mineral growth via particle aggregation

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Dongsheng Li

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Mineral crystallization is ubiquitous in environmental and biological systems and its progression in these settings reflects an inexorable link between the two. Particle aggregation, such as oriented…