Projects

Decrypting inter-cellular communication within the soil microbiome by eavesdropping on pairwise signaling between bacteria

Lead Institution

University of Pittsburgh

Principal Investigator

Erik Wright

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The soil microbiome is composed of a dense network of interacting cells that play a pivotal role in nutrient cycling and plant growth. Decrypting how soil microorganisms communicate through a wide…

Visualizing the chemical plasticity of plant roots in response to soil biotic and abiotic properties and developing a better framework to predict fine root decomposition

Lead Institution

Clemson University

Principal Investigator

Vidya Appukuttan Suseela

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Fine roots of Plants represent a major contributor to soil organic carbon storage. Despite its fundamental role in global carbon cycling, we know little about the factors controlling the residence…

Systematic characterization of heterologous protein secretion in Aspergillus niger

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Jon Magnuson

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Economical and sustainable production of biofuels and bioproducts from biomass requires efficient utilization of the carbon contained within, thereby creating a need for enzyme cocktails used in the…

Using Multi-Modal Micro-Spectroscopy Techniques to Determine the Impact of Aerosolized Organic Material on Biogeochemical Cycles of Fe and P in the Amazon Basin

Lead Institution

University of Miami

Principal Investigator

Cassandra Gaston

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Aerosols transported from Africa are thought to critically impact the biogeochemical cycling of iron (Fe) and phosphorus (P) in the Amazon and relieve nutrient limitations in this ecosystem…

Contaminant immobilization through heterogeneous carbonate growth at mineral/water and mineral/microbe interfaces

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Sebastien Kerisit

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The presence of mineral surfaces and of microorganisms significantly impacts the nature and composition of mineral phases formed in biogeochemical systems. Despite the importance of these…

Does Geochemical Legacy Select for Soil Microbial Members in Establishing Wetland Functions?

Lead Institution

University of Maryland, College Park

Principal Investigator

Stephanie Yarwood

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Wetland restoration efforts are critical to enhance carbon sequestration in biomass and reestablish ecosystem vitality and functions. The success of such restoration efforts are frequently assessed…

Controls of bioorganic constituents of soils in the confined regions between mineral surfaces on nucleation and aggregation

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

James De Yoreo

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The aims of the proposed research are to: 1) Determine the structure of the near surface water layer in the confined region between approaching mineral surfaces and determine the impact of…

Quantification of gene expression patterns relevant to microbial mercury transformations

Lead Institution

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Alexander Johs

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Levels of toxic methylmercury (MeHg) in the environment are a net result of mercury (Hg) methylation and MeHg demethylation processes. Mercury methylation by anaerobic bacteria and archaea is the…

The role of Fe(oxyhydr)oxides in regulating the biogeochemical cycling of Zinc; an essential micro-nutrient

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Eugene Ilton

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

We propose to study the influence of Fe(III) (oxyhydr)oxides on the biogeochemical cycling of Zn, an essential micronutrient. The work is specifically focused on incorporation of Zn into the…

Unraveling Redox Transformation Mechanisms of Ferrihydrite and Micronutrient Metal Incorporation at the Molecular Scale

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Kevin Rosso

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Understanding aquatic chemistry, the natural cycling and fractionation of elements, and energy flow in soils almost always involves, by necessity, attention to the governing influence of electron…

Development of ab initio time-dependent GW+BSE method based on surface hopping scheme in nonadiabatic molecular dynamics

Lead Institution

University of Science and Technology of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Principal Investigator

Jin Zhao

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

An exciton is a quasiparticle formed by an electron and a hole, which interact through the Coulomb interaction. It generally describes optically excited states in insulators, semiconductors, and…

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,…

Movement and Dissolution of a Viscous, Multicomponent Light Nonaqueous-Phase Liquid in a Fluctuating Water Table System

Lead Institution

Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research TNO-NITG

Principal Investigator

Cornelis Hofstee

Project type

Exploratory Research

Typical text book examples of Light Nonaqueous Phase Liquid (LNAPL) sources depict a continuous oil body, submersed in the capillary fringe. In case of past fluctuations of the groundwater table, the…

Quantification and Chemical Analysis of Iron Oxidation in Microbially-Reduced Sediments

Lead Institution

Villanova University

Principal Investigator

John Komlos

Project type

Exploratory Research

The microbial reduction of iron has been shown to be an important process in the transformation and remediation of contaminated sediments. Subsequent reoxidation of microbially-reduced iron has…

Common Architecture Chemistry Components for Terascale Simulations

Lead Institution

Sandia National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Joseph Kenny

Project type

Exploratory Research

We plan to utilize the HP cluster for porting and testing of our Common Component Architecture infrastructure and components on the IA64 architecture. In addition, we will utilize this platform in…

Rosetta ab initio protein folding

Lead Institution

Institute for Systems Biology

Principal Investigator

Richard Bonneau

Project type

Exploratory Research

We propose developing tools and scheduling techniques to make use of the unutilized compute cycles on the HP supercomputer in the Molecular Science Computing Facility to predict the structure of…

Alternative Technologies for In Situ Bioremediation of Radioactive Iodine: Microbial Reductive Methylation of Iodate to Iodocarbon Gas

Lead Institution

Georgia Institute of Technology

Principal Investigator

Thomas DiChristina

Project type

FICUS Research

The reductive methylation of water soluble iodate (IO3-) to volatile iodine (iodocarbon) gas forms the basis of alternative remediation technologies in iodine-contaminated subsurface environments…

Magnetic and transport studies of Co doped TiO2 thin films

Lead Institution

Boise State University

Principal Investigator

Alex Punnoose

Project type

Exploratory Research

Thin films of Co doped TiO2 will be prepared using the MBE and sputter deposition facilities available at PNNL. The magnetic and transport properties of the samples will then be investigated using a…

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…