Projects

NEON Contract FY24

Lead Institution

Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Sarah Leichty

Project type

MONet

MONet has an ILA in place to obtain the services of BCO who operates the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) for a soil sampling effort of terrestrial field sites. BCO will obtain soil…

MONet Test Samples for Analytics

Lead Institution

Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Sarah Leichty

Project type

MONet

A key aspect of MONet is incorporating biogeochemical and microbial process data streams to facilitate parameterization of key variables of multiscale models with eventual coupling to larger-scale…

Imaging the Spatial Effects of Hydraulic Redistribution on Root Exudation

Lead Institution

University at Buffalo, State University of New York

Principal Investigator

Richard Marinos

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The overall aim of the proposed research is to understand how plant hydraulic redistribution (HR) changes root exudation of biomolecules to the rhizosphere. HR is the flux of water from wet soil to…

Microbial diversity, complexity, and dynamics within a ‘grass-to-glass’ profile at a late iron age archaeological site, and as a function of climatic variables

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Carolyn Pearce

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

We propose to systematically analyze the microbial consortia that are enriched on rock surfaces as a function of depth through a ‘grass-to-glass’ profile using samples obtained during the excavation…

Vertical Distribution of Aerosol Properties during TRACER

Lead Institution

Washington University in St. Louis

Principal Investigator

Rajan Chakrabarty

Project type

FICUS Research

This project will provide the vertical distribution of physico-chemical properties of individual atmospheric particles collected by ARM’s tethered balloon system (TBS) as part of the TRACER campaign…

Real-time detection of biogeochemical hotspots within saturated sediments

Lead Institution

Boise State University

Principal Investigator

Kevin Roche

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Saturated sediments are hotspots of biogeochemical reactivity in river corridors. High reactivity is promoted by the exchange of surface water and groundwater within the hyporheic zone, as well as by…

Opening the black box of glacial carbon cycling–providing fundamental insight into impacts of a changing climate

Lead Institution

Montana State University

Principal Investigator

Heidi Smith

Project type

FICUS Research

The cycling of carbon on Earth influences atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and is therefore fundamentally tied to climate over long time periods. Roughly 104 petagrams of organic carbon (OC)…

A high-resolution view of the plant–microbe–mineral interactions affecting C-cycling in thawed permafrost soils

Lead Institution

University of New Hampshire

Principal Investigator

Jessica Ernakovich

Project type

FICUS Research

Arctic permafrost soils store approximately one third of the world’s soil carbon, a stock equal to the Earth’s atmosphere. Warming and drying projected over this century will make this vast soil…

Linking biotic drivers of soil structure to solute flows through soil profiles

Lead Institution

University of Kansas

Principal Investigator

Sharon Billings

Project type

MONet

Recent work highlights the powerful role that biota (here, roots and the microbes that surround them) play in governing soil structure over timescales much shorter than previously assumed. If robust…

Functional and structural analysis of microbial expansin-related proteins that
loosen lignocellulosic and chitin fiber networks

Lead Institution

University of Toronto

Principal Investigator

Emma Master

Project type

FICUS Research

This project brings together functional genomics, structural biology, and advanced techniques in material science, to evaluate the untapped potential of microbial expansin-related proteins in the…

The role of microbial predation and cooperation on soil carbon pathways measured through multi-omics

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Bram WG Stone

Project type

FICUS Research

Soil microorganisms drive the decomposition of terrestrial carbon, releasing CO2 into the atmosphere and retaining additional pools belowground. Thus, a critical parameter in climate modeling efforts…

Structural and biochemical characterization of glycosyltransferase 47 family proteins from Spirodela to enable predictive biology

Lead Institution

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Samantha Ziegler

Project type

FICUS Research

Complex carbohydrates comprise the majority of plant biomass and are assembled by large families of glycosyltransferases (GTs) that transfer sugars from activated donors to a wide range of acceptor…

Systems Analysis of Embolism Resiliency in Grasses for Biofuel Production Under Marginal Environments

Lead Institution

Washington State University

Principal Investigator

Andrii Smertenko

Project type

FICUS Research

Production of grass lignocellulosic biomass for biorefining can be significantly diminished by periods of acute high temperature known as heat waves. High temperature disrupts folding of proteins…

Integrating microbial meta-omics, isotopes and methane metabolites to connect belowground microbial processes to aboveground methane emissions in seasonally-inundated Amazonian floodplain forests

Lead Institution

University of Arizona

Principal Investigator

Scott Saleska

Project type

FICUS Research

The seasonally inundated floodplain forests of the Amazon River and its tributaries are iconic examples of ecosystems at the terrestrial-aquatic interface that are dominated by hydro…

iTopS: integrative topological scores with functional molecular modeling

Lead Institution

University of Kansas Medical Center

Principal Investigator

Mihaela Sardiu

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The objective of this project is to produce a novel computational prototype to synthesize and visualize the structural models of higher-order protein complexes derived from the existing empirical…

Molecular scale investigations of the interaction of soil organic N with soil minerals

Lead Institution

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Yuan Liu

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The association of organic nitrogen (N) compounds with soil minerals is an important mechanism for determining the long-term persistence of N in soils and N bioavailability. Mounting evidence points…

Absolute quantification of components of the algal photosynthetic apparatus in response to environment and modification of chlorophyll biosynthesis

Lead Institution

University of California, Berkeley

Principal Investigator

Sabeeha Merchant

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The operation of the photosynthetic apparatus is influenced by environment, particularly stress situations like poor iron nutrition, carbon or light limitation, and excess excitation energy, which…

Scale-bridging soil imaging and modeling using physics-informed machine learning

Lead Institution

University of Houston

Principal Investigator

Kalyana Nakshatrala

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

This project develops a physics-informed machine learning (PIML) methodology to upscale soil structural information (e.g., X-ray and microscopy images) to continuum-scale process models (e.g., DOE…

Soil-based carbon dioxide sorption: Image analysis, numerical modeling, and deep learning

Lead Institution

Kansas State University

Principal Investigator

Behzad Ghanbarian

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Soils, particularly near the earth surface, are composed of rich nutrients from organic plant materials and animal matter. It is believed that soils, especially agricultural soils, can adsorb carbon…

Investigation of Copper Binding in A Metal-chelating Plant Protein

Lead Institution

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

Principal Investigator

Ritimukta Sarangi

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Cellular metal chelation is a vital plant stress response mechanism that enables plants to survive in metal-polluted soils, which could be valuable in crop engineering for agricultural use and…