Projects

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…

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…

Influence of Adsorbed Organic Acids on Soil Mineral Wettability

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

John Loring

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Soil wettability is dictated by the extent to which hydrophilic mineral surfaces are covered by hydrophobic soil organic carbon (SOC) from bacterial decomposition, decaying plant matter, or root…

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…

The origin, occurrence and distribution of water and volatiles in nominally anhydrous minerals

Lead Institution

The Open University

Principal Investigator

Mahesh Anand

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Nominally anhydrous minerals such as olivine and pyroxene constitute most of the major rock forming minerals. As a result, these phases are abundant in crustal and mantle rocks on Earth, as well as…

Understand How Fungi Cell Wall Responds to Hypersaline Environment

Lead Institution

Michigan State University

Principal Investigator

Tuo Wang

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

This project aims at understanding the how fungi reconstruct their cell walls at hypersaline environments. The research is underlying Functional and Systems Biology Topic 4 (FSB-4) by using EMSL&#039…

Understanding contributions of agricultural dust to vertical profiles of ice-nucleating particles in the central Great Plains

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Susannah Burrows

Project type

FICUS Research

Agricultural dusts contribute to airborne particulate amount, aerosol optical depth, and atmospheric ice-nucleating particle (INP) concentrations in agricultural regions. Agricultural dusts include…

Investigating Fog Processing of Aerosol in Amazonia and their Climatic Impacts

Lead Institution

Federal University of Parana

Principal Investigator

Ricardo Godoi

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

This study aims to understand the chemical composition, morphology, and hygroscopicity of fog and cloud biological constituents and how they can affect the fog and cloud process. We hypothesize that…