Projects

Probing Iron Oxide Mineral Aggregation Behavior with Soil Organic Matters

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Xin Zhang

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The goal of this project is to develop a fundamental understanding of iron oxide nanoparticle (NPs) aggregation mechanisms with soil organic matters (SOM). Heteroaggregation is a ubiquitous but…

Deciphering controls on metal migration within floodplains: The critical role of redox environments on metal-organic complexes

Lead Institution

Stanford University

Principal Investigator

Scott Fendorf

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is a major but poorly understood control over the mobility of micronutrient and contaminant metals in surface and subsurface systems. Variations in the chemical…

Sticky Roots -- Implications of Altered Rhizodeposition for the Fate of Mineral-associated Organic Matter in Natural Ecosystems

Lead Institution

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Principal Investigator

Marco Keiluweit

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The proposed research aims to improve mechanistic understanding of links among rhizodeposition of reactive organic compounds by plant roots, microbial activity, and the stability of mineral…

Carbon signaling cascades that enable the carbohydrate-selective plant biomass degradation by brown rot fungi

Lead Institution

University of Minnesota

Principal Investigator

Jiwei Zhang

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Fungi are dominant microbes for carbon turnover of plant biomass in terrestrial systems. Some of them, namely brown rot fungi, evolved more efficient mechanisms than others, causing the fast…

Wildfire impacts on organic matter bioavailability and river corridor biogeochemistry

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Allison Myers-Pigg

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Disturbances can modify landscape hydrologic flows and alter the quantity and quality of organic matter delivered to rivers, thereby affecting the hydro-biogeochemistry of freshwater terrestrial…

Functional genomics of the root vascular system.

Lead Institution

University of Missouri - Columbia

Principal Investigator

Gary Stacey

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Nitrogen (N) management will be a critical feature for the production of bioenergy crops, which are likely to be grown on sub-optimal soils low in N content. One solution to these issues is to employ…

Identifying particulate organic matter in X-ray Computed Tomography images of soil aggregates with a deep learning approach.

Lead Institution

United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service

Principal Investigator

Devin Rippner

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT) allows for the visualization of the interior of objects that are opaque to visible light. Historically, X-ray CT has been widely used to identify pores and solids…

Incorporating hydrologic perturbation and microbial processes into carbon budgets from coastal wetland soils

Lead Institution

Colorado State University

Principal Investigator

Kelly Wrighton

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Despite their relatively small land coverage, wetlands represent the largest natural source of atmospheric methane, a potent greenhouse gas. However, variations in these wetland emission budgets are…

Reliable Computational Studies of the Role of Metal Dications in Organic Complexation and Mineral Formation and the Formation of Atmospheric Acid Gases

Lead Institution

University of Alabama

Principal Investigator

David Dixon

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The proposed research has two major components. The first component will be to study the interaction of metal dications with organic materials, which is very important in geochemical and…

Biogeochemical consequences of microbial trait tradeoffs under drought, wildfire, and nitrogen addition

Lead Institution

University of California, Irvine

Principal Investigator

Steven Allison

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Environmental perturbations such as drought, nitrogen deposition, and wildfire are becoming increasingly frequent and severe in the western United States. These disturbances are expected to alter…

Chemical Imaging of Particles from TRACER field study

Lead Institution

Washington University in St. Louis

Principal Investigator

Rajan Chakrabarty

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

This project will provide a physico-chemical description of individual atmospheric particles collected during the TRACER campaign, during which we will conduct systematic studies of composition and…

Understanding the genetic and structural bases of hornworts' carbon-concentrating mechanism

Lead Institution

Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research

Principal Investigator

Fay-Wei Li

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Photosynthesis is the source of energy for almost every life on earth. Through evolution, some organisms have evolved ingenious ways to make photosynthesis much better than others - learning how they…

The effect of acyclic terpene emissions on secondary organic aerosol properties

Lead Institution

University of California, Irvine

Principal Investigator

Celia Faiola

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Acyclic terpenes are commonly emitted by plants, and have frequently been linked to plant stress volatile emissions. These compounds are more reactive than the more commonly studied cyclic terpenes…

Comparative Systems Analysis of Bioenergy Grass Internode Development for Biofuel Production in Marginal Environments

Lead Institution

Washington State University

Principal Investigator

Andrii Smertenko

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Grass internodes are the primary source of lignocellulosic biomass. However, despite extensive research on internode biology, our ability to model and manipulate the internode growth to improve…

Bacterial 'cell-cell talk' in complex microbial communities: identifying diverse and novel quorum sensing signals in extreme environments

Lead Institution

University of South Carolina

Principal Investigator

Alan Decho

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Microbes communicate using quorum sensing (QS), a type of cell-cell signaling that occurs within and among species of microbes, and even between kingdoms, to synchronize their gene expression and…

Investigation of Organic Matter Interactions at Geologically Relevant Mineral Interfaces and Metal Cations

Lead Institution

Michigan State University

Principal Investigator

Narasimhan Loganathan

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Clays are porous materials with large surface areas that are very abundant in in the earth's crust. Many geochemical processes including environmental transport of naturally occurring and…

Advancing micromodel and imaging capability to detect hotspots in the hyporheic zone

Lead Institution

Boise State University

Principal Investigator

Kevin Roche

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Many microbially-driven reactions in groundwater only occur when dissolved oxygen concentrations are sufficiently low. In shallow, oxygen-rich groundwater systems like the hyporheic zone, microzones…

Mechanisms of soil organic matter stabilization across a phosphorus and land use gradient in carbonate lithologies.

Lead Institution

University of Kentucky

Principal Investigator

Christopher Shepard

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The belowground cycles of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) are controlled by complex local soil forming processes, but the relationships between these cycles remain poorly defined. The…

Understanding simultaneous lignin depolymerization and catabolism in white-rot fungi

Lead Institution

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Davinia Salvachua Rodriguez

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Lignin is a heterogeneous aromatic polymer found in the cell walls of terrestrial plants and accounts for 30% of the organic carbon in the biosphere. White-rot fungi (WRF) are unquestionably the most…

Analysis of biogeochemical nutrient delivery to the Amazon and Atlantic Ocean from transported smoke and dust

Lead Institution

University of Miami

Principal Investigator

Cassandra Gaston

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Atmospheric particles (e.g., aerosols) deposit key nutrients, such as iron (Fe) and phosphorus (P), to the open ocean and the Amazon Rainforest. These nutrients are important for biological functions…