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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

Former Intern Emily Nagamoto Wins AGU Award1 min read

March 27, 2023

Former Science Undergraduate Laboratory Intern (SULI) Emily Nagamoto received an American Geophysical Union (AGU) Outstanding Presentation Award, which honors exceptional presentations given during AGU’s 2022 Fall meeting. She was mentored by Staff Scientist Charuleka Varadharajan and Postdoctoral Research Fellow Mohammed Ombadi during her Summer 2022 SULI term. Currently an undergraduate student in Duke University’s Nicholas…

EESA Scientists Investigate How Tropical Soil Microbes Might Respond to Future Droughts2 min read

March 14, 2023

As the most biologically diverse terrestrial ecosystems on Earth, tropical rainforests are just as critical to sustaining environmental and human systems as they are beautiful. Their unique climate with high temperatures, humidity, and precipitation promotes high primary productivity, which offsets high respiration, resulting in these ecosystems being one of the largest carbon sinks on Earth,…

Doubling Protected Lands for Biodiversity Could Require Tradeoffs With Other Land Uses, Study Finds4 min read

March 3, 2023

This article first appeared on lbl.gov. Scientists show how 30% protected land targets may not safeguard biodiversity hotspots and may negatively affect other sectors – and how data and analysis can support effective conservation and land use planning Although more than half the world’s countries have committed to protecting at least 30% of land and oceans…

Six Berkeley Lab Scientists Named AAAS Fellows6 min read

This article first appeared at lbl.gov Six researchers have been elected into the 2022 class of the American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has announced their 2022 Fellows, including six scientists from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). This lifetime honor, which follows…

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