Projects

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…

Design of Cathode Materials for Li-ion Batteries with High Capacity

Lead Institution

University of Minnesota

Principal Investigator

Donald Truhlar

Project type

Exploratory Research

This project involves the understanding and design of new cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries by carrying out and analyzing electronic structure calculations employing density functional…

Photochemical Dynamics of Methylamine and Bromoacetyl Chloride: Model Systems for Method Testing and Development

Lead Institution

University of Minnesota

Principal Investigator

Donald Truhlar

Project type

Exploratory Research

In this study, we will analyze computationally the photodissociation of methylamine (CH3NH2) and bromoacetyl chloride (C2H2BrClO) by using a set of methods for modeling photodynamics that are under…

Microbial role in disintegration and formation of clay mineral-organic matter associations

Lead Institution

Miami University

Principal Investigator

Hailiang Dong

Project type

Exploratory Research

Recent study estimates that soil is one of the three largest reservoirs of organic matter (OM) on Earth. Soil carbon is a highly dynamic carbon repository, and its turnover time has a major impact on…

Colony plasticity of filamentous fungi

Lead Institution

Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute

Principal Investigator

Ronald de Vries

Project type

Exploratory Research

We will use the ascomycete industrial workhorse A. niger, which is one of the best studied fungal species with respect to plant biomass conversion. In nature, fungal colonies can cover substantial…

The Transformation of Tetrahedral to Octahedral Coordination in Anions of Interest in High-Level Tank Waste

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Jian-zhi Hu

Project type

Exploratory Research

We propose to use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Raman and Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy in combination with computational modeling to study the conversion of soluble tetrahedral…

In situ Observation of Nanoscale Dynamic Interfacial Processes and Structural Transformations in Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) for Gas Storage and Sensing Technologies

Lead Institution

University of California, San Diego

Principal Investigator

Nathan Gianneschi

Project type

Exploratory Research

High-capacity gas storage and separation materials have tremendous potential for applications in alternative energy generation (hydrogen fuel cells) and in environmental and human health protection …

The effect of trace element content on the rate of biotic and abiotic pyrite oxidation

Lead Institution

University of California, Riverside

Principal Investigator

Timothy Lyons

Project type

Exploratory Research

The oxidation of pyrite is a common source of toxic trace elements and acid generation in many contaminated systems. A key component in understanding the potential threat to ecosystems and possible…

Controlling topotactic phase transitions in oxide thin films

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Yingge Du

Project type

Exploratory Research

The objective of this research is to understand, predict, and control the phase transitions occurring in structurally ordered thin films to enable the rational design, synthesis, and utilization of…

Towards Complete Characterization of Gas-Phase Organic Compounds Emitted from Biomass Burning

Lead Institution

University of California, Riverside

Principal Investigator

Kelley Barsanti

Project type

Exploratory Research

Biomass burning emits teragrams (1012 g) of gaseous organic compounds to the atmosphere. In-plume chemistry leads to the formation of secondary pollutants and short-lived climate forcers, including…

Water condensation in unsaturated mineral-organic assemblages

Lead Institution

Umea University

Principal Investigator

Jean-Francois Boily

Project type

Exploratory Research

This objective of this work is to predict condensation of atmospheric water vapor in the vadose zone of organic-bearing soils. It will primarily develop knowledge on the formation of condensed forms…

Infrared Nanoscopic Imaging of Structural and Globular Proteins

Lead Institution

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Principal Investigator

Joanna Atkin

Project type

Exploratory Research

This work uses infrared near-field optical spectroscopy to investigate the secondary structure of fiber-forming and globular proteins with nanoscale spatial resolution. These protein classes are…