Projects

Microbe-Mineral Interactions for Rare Earth Recovery

Lead Institution

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Yongqin Jiao

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Lanthanides are composed of 15 metallic chemical elements (La-Lu). Combined with Sc and Y, they are often collectively known as the rare earth elements (REEs). Although lanthanides are ubiquitous in…

Assessing the environmental activity of ultra-small cells with deuterium oxide labeling and proteomics

Lead Institution

Oregon State University

Principal Investigator

Stephen Giovannoni

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Reports of ultra-small cell and streamlined genomes have flooded into the field of microbiology, providing support for the idea that the prevalence of streamlined bacteria in nature has been…

Spatiotemporal Controls on Organic Matter Availability and Decomposition Rates across Floodplain Sediments

Lead Institution

Stanford University

Principal Investigator

Scott Fendorf

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Although depositional environments such as floodplains are key regulators of ecosystem carbon storage and downstream metal loadings, they are not very well represented in earth system models…

Unraveling the catabolism of lignin-derived compounds in white-rot fungi (part II)

Lead Institution

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Davinia Salvachua Rodriguez

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

White rot fungi (WRF) are the most efficient organisms for the depolymerization and mineralization of lignin to CO2 and H2O in Nature and thus, WRF play a pivotal role in carbon cycling. Lignin…

Integrating thermodynamic and microbial mechanisms to understand coupled controls of carbon and nitrogen on hyporheic zone metabolism

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

James Stegen

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Terrestrial-aquatic interfaces are widely recognized as active zones of organic matter metabolism, and hyporheic zones in particular are critical in determining the fate of organic matter globally…

Molecular characterization of dissolved organic matter components facilitating the transport and transformation of mercury

Lead Institution

Syracuse University

Principal Investigator

Charles Driscoll

Project type

Exploratory Research

Browning of surface water has been observed across the northeastern United States and northern Europe. This trend has generally been attributed to increases in dissolved organic matter following the…

Probing Microbial Interactions and Coordinated Trophic Responses in Biological Soil Crusts

Lead Institution

University of Mississippi

Principal Investigator

Erik Hom

Project type

FICUS Research

Arid and semiarid lands comprise about 40% of the global land surface, and yet they are among the least understood ecosystems. Cryptogamic or biological soil crusts (BSC) are the dominant ground…

Experimental Impacts of Climate Warming and Ocean Acidification on Metabolic Function and Blue Carbon Accumulation by Eelgrass

Lead Institution

Old Dominion University

Principal Investigator

Richard Zimmerman

Project type

FICUS Research

The goal of this study is to elucidate physiological and genetic responses of eelgrass (Zostera marina L.) populations to the combined effects of ocean acidification and climate warming in order to…

Microbial metabolic activity and biogeochemical reaction networks in redox cycled alluvial systems

Lead Institution

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

Principal Investigator

Kristin Boye

Project type

FICUS Research

Redox conditions and related switches in microbial metabolic activities exert primary control over the stability of carbon, nutrient, and contaminant stocks in alluvial systems, such as floodplains…

Validation of metabolic models, extrapolated from the reference sugar catabolism genetic network of Aspergillus niger by using an orthology-based approach, of evolutionarily diverse fungi

Lead Institution

Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute

Principal Investigator

Ronald de Vries

Project type

FICUS Research

Sugar conversion through central carbon catabolism in filamentous fungi is a complex process that involves many pathways, some with shared and/or redundant components. During growth on plant biomass,…

Hydrobiogeochemical feedbacks across seasonal and decadal time-scales: implications for solute fate and transport in riverbed ecosystems

Lead Institution

Colorado State University

Principal Investigator

Michael Wilkins

Project type

FICUS Research

Upland rivers host exceptionally strong linkages between the terrestrial and aquatic elemental cycles. Due to their abundance and tight connections with terrestrial ecosystems from which they receive…

Consequences of plant genetic variation and the surrounding microbiome on Sphagnum associated nitrogen fixation

Lead Institution

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

David Weston

Project type

FICUS Research

We propose a collaborative project with JGI and EMSL to determine how Sphagnum peatmoss and microbial genetic variation interact to influence community function at elevated temperatures. As part of a…

Dissecting bacterial heterogeneity using fluorescence and imaging mass spectrometry

Lead Institution

University of Massachusetts Medical School

Principal Investigator

Elizabeth Shank

Project type

Exploratory Research

In nature, most microbes exist as members of complex multispecies communities that play vital roles promoting plant and soil health. Many of these microbial communities exist as biofilms: structured…

Investigation of morphological and mixing state properties of aerosol and ice crystal residual particles from the Atlantic sector of the Arctic

Lead Institution

West Texas A&M University

Principal Investigator

Seong-gi Moon

Project type

Exploratory Research

Our current knowledge of aerosol-cloud interactions in the Arctic is inadequate for accurate modeling of northern high-latitude regions. To fill this gap, the field campaign was recently conducted in…

Large Eddy Simulation of Turbulence at the Sediment-Water Interface

Lead Institution

Oregon State University

Principal Investigator

Sourabh Apte

Project type

Exploratory Research

Understanding the fundamental connections between surface and groundwater is a critical component of the current PNNL Subsurface Science Scientific Focus Area (SFA). The sediment-water interface in…

Evaluating the role of carbon radicals on Photocatalytic Nitrogen Fixation on Titania

Lead Institution

Georgia Institute of Technology

Principal Investigator

Marta Hatzell

Project type

Exploratory Research

Photocatalytic fixation of nitrogen by titania catalysts at ambient conditions has been reported for decades, yet the active site capable of adsorbing an inert N2 molecule at ambient pressure and the…

Theoretical study of photoreduction of CO2 on TiO2 surface

Lead Institution

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

Principal Investigator

Jin Zhao

Project type

Exploratory Research

The efficient photoreduction of carbon dioxide to a fuel is a major hurdle in the neutral energy cycle of CO2, and TiO2 is one of the most intensively studied photocatalytic materials for CO2…

Integration of Omics into a New Comprehensive Rate Law for Competitive Terminal Electron-Accepting Processes in Reactive Transport Models: Application to N, Fe, S, and Contaminant Transformations in Stream and Wetland Sediments

Lead Institution

Georgia Institute of Technology

Principal Investigator

Frank Stewart

Project type

Exploratory Research

We recently received notification that our DOE-BER proposal (ID: 0000231737, Program Manager: Paul Bayer) was funded to define a new comprehensive rate law for metabolic processes in freshwater…

Understanding the long-term fate of nitrate in terrestrial ecosystems: Organic N species

Lead Institution

Cornell University

Principal Investigator

Carmen Martinez

Project type

Exploratory Research

We propose a series of experiments aimed at elucidating the mechanisms associated with the incorporation of nitrate (NO3-) into soil organic matter (SOM), with broad implications for the N…

Investigation of mycogenic elemental selenium nanoparticles produced by Se(IV/VI)-reducing fungi under anoxic conditions

Lead Institution

University of Minnesota

Principal Investigator

Cara Santelli

Project type

Exploratory Research

Selenium (Se) is both a micronutrient required for most life and an element of environmental concern due to its toxicity at high concentrations. Selenium can exist as volatile, aqueous, or insoluble…