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SmartSoils Testbed and EcoSense and EcoSIM Capabilities

Core Capabilities

EESA scientists are pioneering the development of an integrated suite of advanced sensing, data integration, and model simulation capabilities to quantify plant-soil-microbe interactions across scales, as well as develop experimental platforms necessary for process discovery and testing of new methodologies under controlled conditions. BioEPIC, a 73,000 square-foot facility under development on the Berkeley Lab campus, will house research to develop and integrate fabricated ecosystems, sensors, data science tools, and computer models that improve understanding and prediction of plant-soil-microbe interactions across Earth’s ecosystems. Three essential components of this work and the new facility are the SMARTSoils Testbed developed at Berkeley Lab’s Geosciences Measurement Facility, and EcoSENSE and EcoSIM capabilities, each described below. 

 

The EcoSENSE Concept

EcoSENSE aims to develop and deploy novel sensing tools and associated analytical and telemetry capabilities to quantify interactions between key environmental factors and biological functioning within ecosystems across scales, from laboratory to testbed to the field. For more information about EcoSENSE capabilities, contact Eoin Brodie at elbrodie@lbl.gov

The SMART Soils Testbed is a fabricated ecosystem for controlled soil ecosystem studies that utilize novel-sensing approaches to better understand plant-soil-microbe interactions. The SMART Soils testbed will help usher in breakthroughs in our ability to understand and predict soil-microbe-plant interactions and their regulation of ecosystem functioning under changing, real-world conditions from laboratory to testbed to field, and from hours to decades. For more information, please contact Yuxin Wu of the Climate & Ecosystem Sciences Division at ywu3@lbl.gov.

EcoSIM is an advanced simulation framework for the realistic portrayal of plant-soil-microbe interactions across scales. Combined with novel sensors and next-generation data capabilities, EcoSIM will provide game-changing solutions needed to understand and predict complex ecosystems under changing, real-world conditions. EcoSIM develops new simulation capabilities for DOE-supported explorations into watershed functioning and belowground biogeochemistry led by Berkeley Lab. It is an advanced simulation framework for the realistic portrayal of plant-soil-microbe interactions across scales that can be used to evaluate observed results from DOE research, and extended to a wide range of land modeling applications. For more information, please contact Bill Riley of the Climate & Ecosystem Sciences Division at wjriley@lbl.gov.

 

 

Facility Contacts

Yuxin Wu
Geophysics Department Head,
Staff Scientist

News & Events

New Look at Climate Data Shows Substantially Wetter Rain and Snow Days Ahead

April 24, 2023

Research shows that by the end of the century the biggest rain and snow days will be 20 to 30% wetter than they are today

EESA Scientists Investigate How Tropical Soil Microbes Might Respond to Future Droughts

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 Finds

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…

A Q&A With Rachel Ward

February 13, 2023

After witnessing tropical deforestation in Honduras and collaborating with farmers impacted by the degradation in these forests, Ph.D. candidate Rachel Ward knew what she wanted to study next–tropical forest regeneration. Ward’s passion to study the impact of tropical forests on both communities and the global carbon cycle led her to pursuing a Ph.D. with the…

A Q&A With Jessica Needham

After being immersed in the Bornean rainforest and surrounded by Dipterocarp trees–large tropical trees with winged seeds–during a field trip in Borneo, Research Scientist Jessica Needham’s life was changed. Since then, her passion to study forests has only grown stronger–and has even led her to modeling tree growth patterns all over the world.  Question: What…

A Q&A With Barbara Bomfim

Growing up in Brasilia, Postdoctoral Research Fellow Barbara Bomfim experienced the transformation of the savannas and rainforests that surrounded her. Now studying wind disturbance and nutrient cycling on the NGEE-Tropics project, Bomfim is passionate about tropical forest response to disturbances in the hopes of advancing science necessary for well-informed and effective forest management.  Question: What…

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