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Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division

Post Announcements Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division Energy Geosciences Division Events

EESA Celebrates 40 Years of Innovative Research

July 17, 2017

Today we celebrate 40 years of innovative research. On July 17, 1977, Berkeley Lab formed the Earth Sciences Division (ESD) in response to the U.S. energy crisis. Now—as the Earth & Environmental Sciences Area (EESA)—it has evolved into a research group studying a broad range of the most pressing environmental and subsurface energy challenges. To commemorate the occasion, EESA has created a a collection of materials that tells the Area’s story: a timeline, a video, and an alumni and friends network page.

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Post Climate and Atmosphere Processes Program Domain Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division Climate Modeling Program

EESA Climate Scientist Featured on KQED Forum Radio Show

July 7, 2017

Travis O'Brien

The high temperatures that hit the San Francisco Bay Area during the week of June 18 got a lot of residents thinking about warm weather. And with many cities hitting triple digits, many locals, no doubt, were wondering how to handle extreme heat in the future. By the end of the week, Travis O’Brien, a climate scientist with…

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Post Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division Publication

Skin Microbiome Changes With Age, EESA Scientist Discovers

June 29, 2017

Hoi-Ying Holman

It turns out your skin is crawling with single-celled microorganisms – ­and they’re not just bacteria. A study by a researcher at Berkeley Lab's Earth & Environmental Sciences Area (EESA) and the Medical University of Graz has found that the skin microbiome also contains archaea, a type of extreme-loving microbe, and that the amount of it varies with age.

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Post Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division Ecology Department Publication

EESA Researchers Solve Deepwater Horizon Mystery

June 26, 2017

Gary Andersen

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 is one of the most studied spills in history, yet scientists haven’t agreed on the role of microbes in eating up the oil. Now EESA researchers have identified all of the principal oil-degrading bacteria as well as their mechanisms for chewing up the many different components that make up the released crude oil.

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Post Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division Environmental Remediation & Water Resources Program Publication Terrestrial Ecosystem Science Program

Novel Monitoring Strategy Uncovers New Insights to Arctic Ecosystems

June 16, 2017

Earth & Environmental Sciences Area/Lawrence Berkeley Lab’s Baptiste Dafflon (right) and Craig Ulrich (left) make soil moisture measurements with a TDR and active layer depths with a tile probe.

Researchers in Berkeley Lab’s Environmental & Earth Sciences Area (EESA) have led the development of a new approach for monitoring terrestrial ecosystems, and have used the system to discover new insights about how processes in different compartments of an Arctic Tundra ecosystem interact over space and time.

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Post Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division Environmental and Biological Systems Science Program Domain Environmental Remediation & Water Resources Program

The Art of Studying—and Sharing—Snowmelt Science in a Mountain Watershed

June 12, 2017

As an ecologist working with the Environmental & Earth Science Area’s Watershed Scientific Focus Area (SFA), Heidi Steltzer and her research assistant, Chelsea Wilmer, spend a lot of time conducting fieldwork in the picturesque Colorado mountains. Now, as she’s studying snowmelt and its effects on plant growth in Crested Butte, Colorado, Steltzer is bringing the SFA’s science to a much wider audience.

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Post Announcements Awards Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division

EESA Faculty Scientist Mary Firestone Elected to National Academy of Sciences

May 3, 2017

Mary Firestone

Mary Firestone Mary Firestone, a professor of soil microbiology at UC Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, has been elected to The National Academy of Sciences. Election to the National Academy is considered to be a high honor, as nominations are reserved for scientists who demonstrate distinguished and continuing achievements in their fields. As a…

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Post Announcements Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division Energy Geosciences Division Hydrogeology Department Resilient Energy Water Infrastructure

Peter Fiske Joins Berkeley Lab as Water-Energy Resilience Institute Director

May 2, 2017

Peter Fiske

Berkeley Lab has chosen Peter Fiske, who holds a doctorate in Geological and Environmental Sciences from Stanford University, to lead the Water-Energy Resilience Institute as its first director. The Institute is a Lab-wide initiative aimed at increasing resilience in a future world that will face both water and energy constraints, and is linked to the…

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