Projects

Identifying and understanding the function and importance of vertically transferred microorganisms within a bioenergy crop microbiome

Lead Institution

Michigan State University

Principal Investigator

Lisa Tiemann

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

To meet the goals of highly productive and sustainable bioenergy cropping systems, we need to explore all options for improving the efficiency of bioenergy crops, including optimizing the positive…

Measuring Physical, Chemical, and Optical Properties of Wildfire Aerosols Using Advanced Instrumentation Toward Improving Their Representation in Atmospheric Models

Lead Institution

Michigan Technological University

Principal Investigator

Lynn Mazzoleni

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

We propose an integrated experimental and modeling study of biomass burning aerosol rich in spherical particles - also known as "tar balls" - using the multi-modal micro-spectroscopy,…

Managing the cellular zinc economy: proteomics-enabled predictive understanding of zinc hierarchy

Lead Institution

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Crysten Blaby

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Zinc is an essential nutrient in biology. When encountering environments with suboptimal zinc availability, organisms initiate acclimation strategies that operate to increase assimilation and release…

Orchestrated chaos at the hyphal tip as fungi oxidatively decompose plant cell walls

Lead Institution

University of Minnesota

Principal Investigator

Jonathan Schilling

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Our research, supported by a new DOE BER Systems Biology grant (as of Sept. 2018), focuses on "brown rot" fungi that selectively extract sugars embedded in lignin. These fungi, we…

Physical and chemical properties of ice-nucleating particles in the Arctic

Lead Institution

University of British Columbia

Principal Investigator

Allan Bertram

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Ice-nucleating particles (INPs) influence the frequency and properties of clouds in the Arctic, which, in turn, influences climate. Hence, to improve predictions of climate in the Arctic, information…

Decrypting inter-cellular communication within the soil microbiome by eavesdropping on pairwise signaling between bacteria

Lead Institution

University of Pittsburgh

Principal Investigator

Erik Wright

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The soil microbiome is composed of a dense network of interacting cells that play a pivotal role in nutrient cycling and plant growth. Decrypting how soil microorganisms communicate through a wide…

Visualizing the chemical plasticity of plant roots in response to soil biotic and abiotic properties and developing a better framework to predict fine root decomposition

Lead Institution

Clemson University

Principal Investigator

Vidya Appukuttan Suseela

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Fine roots of Plants represent a major contributor to soil organic carbon storage. Despite its fundamental role in global carbon cycling, we know little about the factors controlling the residence…

Systematic characterization of heterologous protein secretion in Aspergillus niger

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Jon Magnuson

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Economical and sustainable production of biofuels and bioproducts from biomass requires efficient utilization of the carbon contained within, thereby creating a need for enzyme cocktails used in the…

Using Multi-Modal Micro-Spectroscopy Techniques to Determine the Impact of Aerosolized Organic Material on Biogeochemical Cycles of Fe and P in the Amazon Basin

Lead Institution

University of Miami

Principal Investigator

Cassandra Gaston

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Aerosols transported from Africa are thought to critically impact the biogeochemical cycling of iron (Fe) and phosphorus (P) in the Amazon and relieve nutrient limitations in this ecosystem…

Contaminant immobilization through heterogeneous carbonate growth at mineral/water and mineral/microbe interfaces

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Sebastien Kerisit

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The presence of mineral surfaces and of microorganisms significantly impacts the nature and composition of mineral phases formed in biogeochemical systems. Despite the importance of these…

Does Geochemical Legacy Select for Soil Microbial Members in Establishing Wetland Functions?

Lead Institution

University of Maryland, College Park

Principal Investigator

Stephanie Yarwood

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Wetland restoration efforts are critical to enhance carbon sequestration in biomass and reestablish ecosystem vitality and functions. The success of such restoration efforts are frequently assessed…

Controls of bioorganic constituents of soils in the confined regions between mineral surfaces on nucleation and aggregation

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

James De Yoreo

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The aims of the proposed research are to: 1) Determine the structure of the near surface water layer in the confined region between approaching mineral surfaces and determine the impact of…

Quantification of gene expression patterns relevant to microbial mercury transformations

Lead Institution

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Alexander Johs

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Levels of toxic methylmercury (MeHg) in the environment are a net result of mercury (Hg) methylation and MeHg demethylation processes. Mercury methylation by anaerobic bacteria and archaea is the…

The role of Fe(oxyhydr)oxides in regulating the biogeochemical cycling of Zinc; an essential micro-nutrient

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Eugene Ilton

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

We propose to study the influence of Fe(III) (oxyhydr)oxides on the biogeochemical cycling of Zn, an essential micronutrient. The work is specifically focused on incorporation of Zn into the…

Unraveling Redox Transformation Mechanisms of Ferrihydrite and Micronutrient Metal Incorporation at the Molecular Scale

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Kevin Rosso

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Understanding aquatic chemistry, the natural cycling and fractionation of elements, and energy flow in soils almost always involves, by necessity, attention to the governing influence of electron…

Development of ab initio time-dependent GW+BSE method based on surface hopping scheme in nonadiabatic molecular dynamics

Lead Institution

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

Principal Investigator

Jin Zhao

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

An exciton is a quasiparticle formed by an electron and a hole, which interact through the Coulomb interaction. It generally describes optically excited states in insulators, semiconductors, and…

Investigating Aerosol Aging Processes in the Eastern North Atlantic

Lead Institution

Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research

Principal Investigator

Birgit Wehner

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Aerosols, cloud, and radiation interactions regulate several key aspects of the Earth's hydrogeological cycle, weather, and climate system. The number concentration of cloud condensation nuclei …

Understanding ice nucleating particles from agricultural dusts

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Susannah Burrows

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The atmospheric concentration of ice-nucleating particles (INPs) impacts the formation and development of cloud ice crystals, affecting cloud radiative properties and precipitation. However,…

Movement and Dissolution of a Viscous, Multicomponent Light Nonaqueous-Phase Liquid in a Fluctuating Water Table System

Lead Institution

Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research TNO-NITG

Principal Investigator

Cornelis Hofstee

Project type

Exploratory Research

Typical text book examples of Light Nonaqueous Phase Liquid (LNAPL) sources depict a continuous oil body, submersed in the capillary fringe. In case of past fluctuations of the groundwater table, the…

Quantification and Chemical Analysis of Iron Oxidation in Microbially-Reduced Sediments

Lead Institution

Villanova University

Principal Investigator

John Komlos

Project type

Exploratory Research

The microbial reduction of iron has been shown to be an important process in the transformation and remediation of contaminated sediments. Subsequent reoxidation of microbially-reduced iron has…