When envisioning renewable energy, sources that often come to mind are the sun, wind, batteries, and water. However, biofuel, a type of renewable energy that converts organic material from plants into liquid fuel, is an important part of a global effort to achieve net-zero emissions. Switchgrass, a deep-rooted native North American grass that grows in…
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Just one teaspoon of soil or sediment can contain up to one billion microbes. These microorganisms in Earth’s subsurface, although invisible, largely influence the global carbon cycle through their ability to break down organic material, which releases carbon dioxide in the process. However, environmental conditions within Earth’s subsurface such as moisture, nutrient availability, and…
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Climate change is leading to an increase in many vivid impacts, such as more frequent wildfires and floods. However, there are many effects of climate change that can’t be seen from miles away – or even seen at all. The intensity and frequency of drought is predicted to increase along with higher temperatures. Droughts can…
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Senior scientist William Riley and several EESA collaborators have published a chapter of a new book on soil biogeochemistry. Published in March, the book Multi-Scale Biogeochemical Processes in Soil Ecosystems: Critical Reactions and Resilience to Climate Changes was developed to provide a state-of-the-art overview of research in soil biogeochemical processes and strategies for greenhouse…
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This article was published first at newscenter.lbl.gov. Physicists and soil scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have teamed up to develop a new method for finding carbon stored in the soil by plants and microbes. Unlike all previous methods, this new technique makes it possible to see the…
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More than half of earth’s freshwater comes from mountainous watersheds – areas of land that catch precipitation and drain to nearby streams, lakes, and rivers. These ecosystems provide services such as water filtration, nutrient cycling and carbon storage that can significantly impact the amount of clean, freshwater critical for energy production, agriculture, and municipal water…
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Living soil microorganisms are extremely powerful and incredibly diverse biogeochemical engines driving the turnover of organic matter in the terrestrial biosphere. However, it is not only in life that microbes control the future of the global carbon cycle and Earth system productivity. In fact, dead microbial biomass, or necromass, is one of the largest stocks…
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Through photosynthesis, the green leaves of vegetation use the sun’s energy to capture carbon dioxide (CO2), synthesize sugars, and thus sustain life on Earth. Globally, plants have been shown to photosynthesize more with increased atmospheric levels of this heat-trapping gas. But this CO2 fertilization effect (CFE) can be hard to determine without teasing out factors…
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This article was originally published on the Berkeley Lab Computing Sciences website. By Elizabeth Ball As winter falls in a remote corner of Colorado, in a mountainous watershed on the Upper Colorado River, hundreds of sensors continue their work, day in and day out: forming a detailed quantitative picture of the watershed by collecting…
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This news release appeared first at newscenter.lbl.gov A new study finds that plants are photosynthesizing more in response to more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but nowhere near enough to remove all emissions. (Credit: baona/iStock) Because plants take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into food, forests and other similar ecosystems are considered…
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