Projects

Identifying the mechanism of bacterial extracellular electron transfer via conductive pili proteins

Lead Institution

Yale University

Principal Investigator

Nikhil Malvankar

Project type

Exploratory Research

Microbial metabolism plays an important role in the global cycling of carbon, nutrients, and metals. Recent discovery of microorganisms sharing energy using direct electrical connections might…

Speciation of trivalent actinides and lanthanides in the ALSEP solvent extraction system

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Tatiana Levitskaia

Project type

Exploratory Research

Nuclear energy is a clean, carbon neutral energy source that can mitigate the effects of climate change in the coming decades by replacing fossil fuel energy sources. Political and societal…

Chemical Imaging and Molecular Characterization of Primary Biological Particles.

Lead Institution

University of California, Irvine

Principal Investigator

Alex Guenther

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The objective of the proposed project is to conduct in-depth studies of Primary Biological Aerosol Particles (PBAP) for predictive understanding of their environmental impact. The ultimate goal is to…

Development of NMR Sparse Sampling Methods for Quantitative Metabolic Flux Analysis

Lead Institution

Duke University

Principal Investigator

Brian Coggins

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Quantitative metabolomics and metabolic flux analysis have emerged in recent years as valuable approaches for the study of carbon cycling in living organisms and in the environment, whether for…

Molecular mechanisms underlying changes in the temperature sensitive respiration response of forest soils to long-term experimental warming

Lead Institution

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Principal Investigator

Jeffrey Blanchard

Project type

FICUS Research

A more complete understanding of how global warming will affect carbon-cycle feedbacks to the climate system is central to model projections of future climate. Simulation experiments with fully…

Deciphering controls on plant decomposition in Arctic ecosystems: Identifying unknown microbial condensed tannin degradation pathways

Lead Institution

Colorado State University

Principal Investigator

Kelly Wrighton

Project type

FICUS Research

Climate change in the Arctic is progressing rapidly, and much of the focus, thus far, has been on permafrost thaw and the rapid mineralization of soil organic carbon (C) by soil microorganisms…

The impacts of nitrogen availability and seasonal dynamics on plant-microbial interactions affecting C and N cycling in coniferous forest soils

Lead Institution

Institute of Microbiology of the CAS

Principal Investigator

Petr Baldrian

Project type

FICUS Research

Coniferous forests are widely distributed in temperate and boreal biomes and the fact that they efficiently store large stocks of carbon makes them globally important. Decomposer and mycorrhizal…

Global warming induced salinity shifts: metabolic responses by algal-bacterial consortia

Lead Institution

University of Washington

Principal Investigator

Rose Ann Cattolico

Project type

FICUS Research

The reality of global warming predicts that the survival of many organisms will be compromised due to rapid environmental changes of the ecosystems in which they live. Aquatic ecosystems are…

The role of priming effects on the conversion of blue carbon to CO2 in the coastal zone

Lead Institution

University of Florida

Principal Investigator

Thomas Bianchi

Project type

FICUS Research

"Blue carbon," or organic carbon (OC) derived from and stored in coastal and marine environments, is recognized as an important OC sink within the global carbon cycle, particularly in…

Systems analysis of grass secondary cell wall development and regulation for biofuel production

Lead Institution

Washington State University

Principal Investigator

Laura Bartley

Project type

FICUS Research

The objective of this proposal is to identify the proteins, phosphopeptides, transcripts, and metabolic signatures that mediate secondary cell wall (SCW) development in grasses. Grass cell walls are…

Combined 'omics approaches for the study of ectomycorrhizal symbiosis between Suillus and Pinaceae, with emphasis on their role in nutrient cycling

Lead Institution

University of Florida

Principal Investigator

Hui-ling Liao

Project type

FICUS Research

This study will explore the genetics of obligately symbiotic interactions between conifers (Pinaceae) and their host-specific ectomycorrhizal fungi in the mushroom genus Suillus, and their effects on…

Understanding conversion of biomass-derived carbon into lipids and terpenoids in the oleaginous yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides

Lead Institution

University of California, Berkeley

Principal Investigator

Jeffrey Skerker

Project type

FICUS Research

The objective of this proposal is to understand how biomass-derived carbon is converted into lipids and terpenoids in the oleaginous and carotenogenic yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides. We will carry…

Metabolic Constraints on Organic Matter Decomposition and Metal Cycling in Sediment Deposits

Lead Institution

Stanford University

Principal Investigator

Scott Fendorf

Project type

FICUS Research

Depositional environments such as floodplains are poorly understood and dynamic components of the global carbon cycle that not are well represented in Earth system models. Further, they have a…

Something old, something new: systems-level insights into plant-microbial-permafrost carbon dynamics by parallel high-resolution organic matter and microbial meta-omics

Lead Institution

The Ohio State University

Principal Investigator

Virginia Rich

Project type

FICUS Research

A fundamental challenge of modern environmental science is to understand how earth systems will respond to climate change. A parallel challenge in biology is to understand how information encoded in…

Can Mineral Growth by Oriented Attachment Lead to Incorporation of Uranium into the Structure of Fe(oxyhydr)oxides?

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Eugene Ilton

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Previous laboratory work has shown that uranium can be incorporated into the structure of hematite and goethite during co-precipitation and redox transformation of ferrihydrite, respectively. However…

Redox And Reactive Minerals: The Impact Of Redox Fluctuations On Mineral-Organic Matter Associations And Microbial Carbon Transformations In Tropical Forest Soils

Lead Institution

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Jennifer Pett-Ridge

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

In tropical ecosystems, changes in future Earth Systems will likely affect both the amplitude and periodicity of redox oscillations due to predicted increases in temperature and changes in the…

Understanding Reactive Nitrogen Recycling on Soil and Mineral Dust Surfaces

Lead Institution

Indiana University - Bloomington

Principal Investigator

Jonathan Raff

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

A fundamental understanding of the factors controlling the lifetime and fate of reactive nitrogen oxides (NOy = NO, NO2, HNO2, N2O5, etc.) in the atmosphere is critical for accurately representing…

Characterizing a tripartite plant - fungus - bacteria symbiosis important to peatland carbon and nitrogen cycling

Lead Institution

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

David Weston

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The importance of plant-microbiome systems on terrestrial carbon and nitrogen processes is perhaps most pronounced in Sphagnum dominated ecosystems, which occupy 3% of the Earth's land surface…

Biosystem dynamics and analysis of Rhodobacter sphaeroides strains with increased lipid accumulation

Lead Institution

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Principal Investigator

Timothy Donohue

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

We are requesting access to EMSL microscopy, including transmission electron microscopes, the helium ion microscope, and atomic force microscope. We also are requesting access to high-resolution…

Fundamental studies of the sorption of organic molecules within engineered soil surrogates

Lead Institution

Louisiana State University

Principal Investigator

Robert Cook

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The sorption of molecules into the organic matrix of soils (a.k.a soil organic matter [SOM]) is of great importance for a number of environmental issues; in particular 1) carbon cycling via carbon…