Projects

Elucidating aromatic catabolic pathways in white-rot fungi

Lead Institution

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Davinia Salvachua Rodriguez

Project type

Exploratory 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…

Phosphorus and Carbon Cycling Directed by Spatial Plasticity in Root Exudation

Lead Institution

Michigan State University

Principal Investigator

James Moran

Project type

Exploratory Research

Plant root exudates provide a significant carbon (C) source for rhizosphere microbial communities. In return, these communities help mobilize nutrients needed for plant growth. For instance,…

Lithologic controls on rock-derived nutrient cycling and soil organic carbon storage in perhumid temperate coastal rainforest

Lead Institution

University of Nebraska Omaha

Principal Investigator

Ashlee Dere

Project type

Exploratory Research

Mineral weathering is an important supplier of plant essential nutrients and influences soil carbon sequestration yet the drivers and rates of mineral transformation and soil formation are still…

Capturing the influence of ocean biology on aerosol collected in the remote region of the eastern north Atlantic

Lead Institution

State University of New York at Stony Brook

Principal Investigator

Josephine Aller

Project type

Exploratory Research

Cloud lifetime and optical properties, as well as precipitation, depend heavily on aerosol size, concentration, and chemical properties. Oceans which cover 71% of the Earth's surface are a major…

Fate and Transport of Nano- and Microplastic in Terrestrial Ecosystems

Lead Institution

Washington State University

Principal Investigator

Markus Flury

Project type

Exploratory Research

Nano- and microplastics are ubiquitous in many consumer products and released to the environment through rub-off or improperly disposed waste. Little is known about quantity, distribution, and fate…

Template-based growth of V2O5 nanorods by electrodeposition and/or sol electrophoresis

Lead Institution

University of Washington

Principal Investigator

Steven Limmer

Project type

Exploratory Research

Template-based growth of single crystal V2O5 nanorods by either electrochemical or electrophoretic deposition was studied. Specifically, standard electrochemical deposition from VOSO4 solution,…

STM Tip Analysis by TEM

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Zdenek Dohnalek

Project type

Exploratory Research

This is a proof of principle study. The goal is to determine whether the TEM instrumentation can be used to analyze the sharpness and oxidation of the tips used in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM)…

Micro-dimension Calibration

Lead Institution

XL Science & Technology

Principal Investigator

Y Peng

Project type

Exploratory Research

Precision microfabraicated parts can not be calibrated even with best optical microscope. SEM (FESEM) can provide the depth of field for the ultimate micro-de=imension calibration.

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…

Investigation of the Aerosol Impact on the Surface-Atmosphere Interactions

Lead Institution

Purdue University

Principal Investigator

Alexander Laskin

Project type

FICUS Research

This project will provide a physicochemical description of individual atmospheric particles collected in the SAIL experiment, where we will conduct systematic studies of composition and physical…

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…