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.