Jillian Banfield: Profile - Earth and Environmental Sciences Area

Source: Dan Hawkes

Jillian Banfield, UC Berkeley Professor and Berkeley Lab Earth Sciences Division staff scientist, shares her perspective on how the DOE Joint Genome Institute helps advance her research, addressing knowledge gaps related to the roles of subsurface microbial communities in biogeochemical cycling. Read a short Q&A or watch what she has to say in a short video shot at the Rifle, CO site.
To read more, go to: http://jgi.doe.gov/jillian-banfield-university-of-california-berkeley/

News & Events

Berkeley Lab Ecologist Hosts Guatemalan Students Researching Insect Genes, Gut Microbes

September 22, 2017

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.

Commer makes his way to the World Championship of Public Speaking

August 22, 2017

Michael Commer, a geological research scientist in the Energy Geosciences Division will make his way to the 2017 Toastmasters International Speech Contest Semifinals this week with hopes to advance to the Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking ®. Michael discovered the Toast-on-the-Hill Toastmasters Club (a Berkeley Lab Employee Association) two years ago and he was…

Three EESA scientists receive DOE Early Career Research Awards

August 10, 2017

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.

EESA Develops New Approach to Restock California’s Groundwater via Almond Orchards, Vineyards

August 3, 2017

Groundwater—the water stored underneath the Earth’s surface between the cracks and spaces in soil, sand, and bedrock—is essential for the California residents and farmers who rely on it for up to 46 percent of their annual water use. Yet during the 2012-2017 drought, the state’s surface water supply was not sufficient to meet demand, resulting in excess groundwater pumping that caused land subsidence of up to 13 inches in some parts of the San Joaquin Valley.

Now a team of scientists at Berkeley Lab’s Earth & Environmental Sciences Area are working with farmers and partners like the Almond Board of California and UC Davis to test on-farm banking, a new approach that has the potential to manage groundwater more sustainably. It’s an improvement on the age-old method of groundwater recharge, the process of replenishing aquifers by infiltrating water from the surface into shallow aquifers.

“On-farm banking has the promise of making the most productive use of the greatest amount of land possible while increasing the reliability and resiliency of California’s groundwater supply,” says EESA scientist Peter Nico, a soil and environmental biogeochemist.