Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley have discovered that as plants develop they craft their root microbiome, favoring microbes that consume very specific metabolites. Their study could help scientists identify ways to enhance the soil microbiome for improved carbon storage and plant productivity. “For more…
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Berkeley Lab’s ‘farm of the future’ project marries microbiology and machine learning
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This article originally appeared on the website of the Biosciences Area at Berkeley Lab. Several of the diverse microbes used in the study described were isolated from nitrate-contaminated and pristine groundwater wells at Oak-Ridge Field Research Center by a team led by Romy Chakraborty, head of the Ecology Department within the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area…
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New Berkeley Lab research published in the journal Nature Communications Thursday explores the impact of a changing climate on Arctic ecosystems with permanently frozen soils. As the Arctic continues to warm at about twice the rate of the rest of the world, scientists expect these frozen soils known as permafrost to thaw, activating microbes capable…
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The EESA Mentoring Pilot Program for FY2018 kicked off with two training sessions on January 11 for individuals grouped in pairs of 43 mentors and mentees from our Area who will meet over the next nine months. Mentors learned effective mentoring skills in a morning training with breakout sessions. Mentees gathered in an afternoon training…
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More than 75 participants from across all six areas of Berkeley Lab attended a half-day workshop on December 1 to discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with ecosystem sensing and characterization. Hosts Eoin Brodie, Senior Scientist, Ecology Department, and research scientist Yuxin Wu, opened the morning workshop with an explanation of the work underway by Lab researchers…
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Massive global research collaboration known as the Earth Microbiome Project catalogues planet’s microbial diversity at unprecedented scale
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The following story was authored by Linda Vu of Berkeley Lab Computing Sciences. The story she tells of the collaboration between Daniela Ushizima and Romy Chakraborty is a great example of the ways scientists work together across Berkeley Lab. Their participation in the U.S. State Department’s TechWomen program is testament to the far-reaching impact the…
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Berkeley Lab ecologist Javier A. Ceja-Navarro welcomed three undergraduate students from the University of Guatemala to the national laboratory during the week of September 11, 2017. The young women are studying three insects of economic significance: Anopheles albimanus, Ceratitis capitata, and Anastrepha ludens. The Latin American students learned about the lab's work to assess the role of the gut microbiome in mosquitoes through its Microbes to Biomes project. They learned to extract DNA and then use it to amplify genes for the identification of microbial populations.
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Three Earth and Environmental Sciences Area (EESA) scientists receive the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science Early Career Research Award for 2017. Congratulations to Nick Bouskill, Charlie Koven, and Neslihan Tas Baas.
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