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Projects

As a scientific user facility, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) provides expertise, instrumentation, and resources to 250 projects each year. 

Projects displayed below reflect information and abstracts that were published before April 30, 2024. To review current EMSL user projects, visit Science Central™.

  • Projects beginning at or after given date.
    Projects ending at or before given date.

Investigating Aerosol Aging Processes in the Eastern North Atlantic

Lead Institution
Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research
Principal Investigator
Birgit Wehner
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Aerosols, cloud, and radiation interactions regulate several key aspects of the Earth's hydrogeological cycle, weather, and climate system. The number concentration of cloud condensation nuclei …

Understanding ice nucleating particles from agricultural dusts

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Susannah Burrows
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
The atmospheric concentration of ice-nucleating particles (INPs) impacts the formation and development of cloud ice crystals, affecting cloud radiative properties and precipitation. However,…

Coupling spectral techniques; Molecular characterization of dissolved organic matter across the major soils and ecosystems of the United States using fluorescence spectroscopy and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectroscopy

Lead Institution
University of Colorado at Boulder
Principal Investigator
Michael Sanclements
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
This User proposal will facilitate the completion of data analysis central to the broader research effort investigating soil organic matter (SOM) stabilization and vulnerability using a multi-scale…

Aerosol-Ice Formation Closure Study Applying Ambient Aerosol Particles

Lead Institution
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Principal Investigator
Daniel Knopf
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Atmospheric ice nucleation represents one of the least understood atmospheric processes, hampering prediction of cloud processes and climate. Whereas the aerosol community has widely conducted…

In situ tracking of carbon flow through the soil microbiome

Lead Institution
Institute of Microbiology of the CAS
Principal Investigator
Petr Baldrian
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Forest soils represent an environment with high carbon (C) stocks and important hotspots of C turnover and microorganisms are the most important actors in this process. The understanding of the C…

Probing the Extreme Temperature and Salinity Limits of Deep Subsurface CH4-cycling Chemolithoautotrophic Microbial Syntrophic Communities and Their Assembly Using NanoSIMS and FISH-TAMB

Lead Institution
Princeton University
Principal Investigator
Tullis Onstott
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
The specific aim of this Large-Scale EMSL proposal is to image the metabolic interactions of deep subsurface anaerobic CH4-cycling microbial consortia: 1) at high pressure and temperature; 2) at high…

Nature of Natural Organic Matter Interactions with Mineral Surfaces

Lead Institution
St. Mary's College of Maryland
Principal Investigator
Geoffrey Bowers
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
The interactions of organic- and bio-molecules with minerals play a central role in controlling soil biogeochemistry; plant nutrition; chemical processes in sediments, soils, sedimentary rocks and…

Visualizing Uranium Atom Exchange in UO2 Driven by Biogeochemical Processes

Lead Institution
Washington University in St. Louis
Principal Investigator
Daniel Giammar
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Redox-driven recrystallization of metal oxides is an exciting environmental phenomenon that can influence biogeochemical cycles of both nutrients and contaminants. This phenomena occurs in systems…

Functional characterization of a defined Panicum rhizobiome

Lead Institution
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Esther Singer
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Nitrogen limitation is a global challenge for biofuel crop resilience and hence bioenergy security. Plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) can help to mitigate plant stress by forming symbiotic…

Manganese biomineralization by the bacterial protein complex Mnx

Lead Institution
University of Washington
Principal Investigator
Bradley Tebo
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Manganese-oxide mineral formation by bacterial oxidation of dissolved Mn(II) is an important process in aquatic and soil environments and is a key part of the global Mn cycle. The Mn bio-oxides…

Mechanisms of Nitrogen Fixation by Endophytes of Populus

Lead Institution
University of Washington
Principal Investigator
Sharon Doty
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Native poplar (Populus) plants have a diverse microbiota including endophytes, microorganisms that live within plants, some of which can fix atmospheric nitrogen (N2) into forms of nitrogen (N)…