A research team led by Berkeley Lab has determined that a tropical weather phenomenon impacting the West Coast will dramatically alter California rainfall by century’s end, leaving the state to contend with a 50% increase in winter rainfall variability by the year 2100. The Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) is a poorly understood rainfall pattern that covers…
Read More
Plant cell walls form the bulk of forest biomass. These cellulose-rich structures undergo physical and chemical modifications as leaves grow and develop, die and decompose, or desiccate when drought strikes. A plant’s cell walls are coated in methyl and acetyl esters–which are released into the atmosphere as methanol and acetic acid by its leaves as…
Read More
This article was written by Jennifer Huber and originally appeared on the website of Berkeley Lab Computing Sciences. Wind-generated ocean waves — “wind waves” — can be major disruptors of coastal communities, marine ecosystems, offshore industries, and shipping, causing considerable environmental, geophysical, and socioeconomic impacts across the globe. Large waves during past winter storms,…
Read MoreOn Wednesday, June 24, more than 40 members of EESA attended a special brownbag presentation on racial equity by Aditi Chakravarty of Berkeley Lab’s Learning and Organizational Development group. The event presented an opportunity to move forward with discussions begun at the June 15 EESA Town Hall, during which EESA Associate Laboratory Director Susan Hubbard…
Read More
Three scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science to receive significant funding for research through its Early Career Research Program (ECRP). In addition, three faculty scientists with joint appointments at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley will receive ECRP funding through their UC…
Read MoreIn a project led by Arva Intelligence, Berkeley Lab scientists will monitor carbon emissions and other indicators at five commercial farms in California and Arkansas. Here Berkeley Lab scientist Craig Ulrich collects geophysical measurements. (Credit: Jay McEntire/Arva Intelligence) Farmers have enough worries – between bad weather, rising costs, and shifting market demands – without having to…
Read More
Researchers from Berkeley Lab and 20 other institutions have found that land use and atmospheric changes are altering forest structure around the world, resulting in fewer of the mature trees that are better at storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The scientists evaluated data and observations from more than 160 previous studies designed to…
Read More
A Berkeley Lab internship program involving master’s-level students from the nation’s fifth most diverse university will enter its third year in June. So far six students have completed the program, which brings talented students from Cal State University East Bay (CSUEB) in Hayward to work on research projects with scientists in Berkeley Lab’s EESA. A…
Read More
One of the many unanswered scientific questions about COVID-19 is whether it is seasonal like the flu – waning in warm summer months then resurging in the fall and winter. Now scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are launching a project to apply machine-learning methods to a plethora of health and environmental datasets, combined…
Read More
Scientists who study Arctic ecosystems have forewarned a “sleeping giant” hidden within permafrost soils–trillions of tons of planet-warming greenhouse gases that will be released when rapid thaw awakens microbes, activating soil decomposition. Improving what is known about microbial community makeup and behavior in these fragile ecosystems could help determine how consequential rapid permafrost thaw will…
Read More