This is Earth Science Week—the annual event where we can all celebrate the earth sciences, and the researchers and educators whose work contributes to our society’s understanding of our planet, our ecosystems, our oceans, and our atmosphere. This year’s theme is “Visualizing Earth Systems”—an everyday theme around here! Getting straight to the fun stuff—there are three…
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ESMs (Earth system models) are crucial in estimating climate sensitivity, but show large uncertainty in carbon cycle feedbacks. A key step of reducing this uncertainty is to identify the processes that govern carbon-climate and carbon-concentration feedbacks driven by changes in terrestrial carbon stocks. Are these changing carbon stocks driven by changes to inputs, or changes…
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In the News: Sébastien Biraud led an ARM-ACME V team through a 16-week airborne campaign to collect data over the tundra of Alaska’s North Slope. The team flew 38 flights, just 500 feet above ground, from June 1 to September 15, using a Gulfstream-159 (G-1) research aircraft from the ARM Aerial Facility. Most flights went over…
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Charlie Koven, scientist in Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division, discusses newly published research results in LBNL’s News Center today. As global warming causes soil temperatures to increase, some of the billions of tons of carbon frozen in Arctic permafrost will will be released into the atmosphere, and accelerate climate change. This is a big unknown. Now there’s a…
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Earth & Environmental Sciences Area Charts Path Forward at Town Hall At yesterday’s Earth & Environmental Sciences Area (EESA) town hall, Berkeley Lab director Paul Alivisatos said that EESA is well positioned to address many critical national and global scientific needs. He also said that EESA’s science is deeply integrated with other Lab areas, such…
Read MoreTwo new divisions and division directors under the recently formed Earth & Environmental Sciences Area of Berkeley Lab were announced today. Jens Birkholzer has been appointed Director of the new Energy Geosciences Division. Read more about Birkholzer and the Energy Geosciences Division. William (Bill) Collins has been appointed Director of the new Climate & Ecosystem Sciences Division.…
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UC Office of the President has announced the 2nd year of the UC Global Food Initiative (UCGFI) student fellowship! The application period is now open and applications are due on October 2nd. Berkeley Lab’s UCGFI Program is led by Peter Nico of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area, Earth Sciences Division. Visit the Berkeley Lab…
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Savannah River National Laboratory has just released this video showing how they have developed an innovative remediation method for groundwater radioactive contaminants at the Savannah River Site. (The Savannah River Site is a national nuclear weapons site that shut down in the 1950s.) Their method has improved capture of contaminants, and at substantially lower cost than the prior approach.…
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This is a call for developing low-tech solutions to treat water contaminated by uranium mining in low income, developing countries. After visiting Kyrgyzstan a few weeks ago, and talking to several residents, Boris Faybishenko (Earth & Environmental Sciences, LBNL) urges the scientific community to come up with simple solutions for treating uranium-and-radium contaminated water, whether for…
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EESA has new representatives on Berkeley Lab’s Diversity and Inclusion Council: Travis O’Brien and Marilyn Saarni. The Earth Sciences Division thanks Jim Houseworth for his excellent service in this role over the last several years. (Jim is retiring this year.) Many volunteered to be EESA’s D&I representative. With such passionate interest in the EESA community, Travis and Marilyn invite those…
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