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Dead or alive? Modeling how microorganisms in soil shape the global carbon cycle2 min read

by niba on March 3, 2022

Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division

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 of organic carbon on Earth, making up as much as 50 percent of the total soil organic carbon pool. A new review appearing in Nature Reviews Microbiology, co-authored by Eoin Brodie and Gianna Marschmann of EESA , outlines how it is now possible to leverage new conceptual understanding, emerging technologies and modeling capabilities to predict how the life and death of soil microbes may impact the planet’s soil carbon stocks. 

“Here at Berkeley Lab, we are most excited about new opportunities to develop a robust, data-driven foundation for integrating the microbial ecology of life and death into forecasts of biogeochemical models, from the global system-level scale all the way down to the molecular scale of mineral/carbon/water/microbe/plant interfaces” said Gianna Marschmann, a postdoc in the Department of Energy’s Genomic Sciences program “Microbes Persist” Soil Microbiome Scientific Focus Area led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Together with Jinyun Tang and Ulas Karaoz, staff and research scientists in EESA, the team is developing computational workflows to connect microbial traits inferred from genome sequences with trait-based microbial models as a foundation for enabling multiscale microbial modeling. The computational pipeline, outlined in the review article, will be part of the Department of Energy’s Systems Biology Knowledgebase (KBase), providing new community capabilities that will enable researchers to inform and benchmark biogeochemical models with trait-based data, ultimately enhancing our understanding of Earth’s microbial engines and their impact on changes to the global carbon cycle. 

Read the news release issued by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory here.

News & Events

A Q&A With Ingenuity Intern Hang Chen2 min read

August 4, 2022

After excelling in the sciences throughout high school and his undergraduate program, 2022 Ingenuity intern Hang Chen realized he wasn’t just good at science – he enjoyed it. Chen received his Bachelor’s degree in geophysics from Central South University in China, and is a current geophysics Ph.D. candidate at Boise State University in Idaho. Chen…

A Q&A With Ingenuity Intern Toshiyuki Bandai2 min read

After 2022 Ingenuity Intern Toshiyuki Bandai studied soil physics in his Bachelor’s and Master’s programs at the University of Tokyo in Japan, he was eager to learn even more about soil and apply his knowledge to other areas in environmental science. As a current Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Merced, he is continuing…

A Q&A With Ingenuity Intern Elijah Adeniyi2 min read

Equipped with a Master’s degree in geology, 2022 Ingenuity Intern Elijah Adeniyi has been eager to apply his background to new areas of environmental science. “Taking on new challenges and learning,” Adeniyi stated, “is what science is all about.” As a Ph.D. student at Montana State University, Adeniyi is continuing to study geology and has…

Daniel Stolper Selected by DOE’s Early Career Research Program2 min read

June 22, 2022

Daniel Stolper is among five Berkeley Lab researchers to receive funding through the Department of Energy’s Early Career Research Program (ECRP), and is one of just 83 nationwide to be selected this year by the DOE for this prestigious award. Stolper is an EESA faculty scientist with a joint appointment at UC Berkeley, where he…

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