Berkeley Lab is one of 14 organizations from around the world that have collectively been awarded $12.5 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to launch a new Biology Integration Institute (BII), called EMERGE and led by Ohio State University. The Institute aims to improve understanding of ecosystem-climate interactions, focusing on permafrost systems. Bill Riley…
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Twelve early career scientists will go head-to-head in the third annual Berkeley Lab SLAM on Sept. 17, competing for a grand prize of $3,000. From EESA, James Dennedy-Frank and Sara Gushgari-Doyle are among the finalists. The event takes place virtually from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and will be live-streamed. The virtual audience will get…
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Record drought and heat have some farmers worried about where and when crops can be grown in the future, even in California where unprecedented microclimate diversity creates ideal growing conditions for many of the most popular items in America’s grocery stores. A third of the vegetables and two-thirds of fruits and nuts consumed by Americans…
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Last month, an international team of scientists, including Berkeley Lab’s William Riley and Qing Zhu, published an update on the global methane budget as part of the Global Carbon Project. They estimated annual global methane emissions at nearly 570 million tons for the 2008 to 2017 decade, which is 5% higher than emissions recorded for the early 2000s and the equivalent of 189 million more cars on the world’s roads.
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Thermal mud pots at Controlled Thermal Resources’ project site at the Salton Sea. (Courtesy CTR) Deep beneath the surface of the Salton Sea, a shallow lake in California’s Imperial County, sits an immense reserve of critical metals that, if unlocked, could power the state’s green economy for years to come. These naturally occurring metals are dissolved…
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Scientists from the Energy Geosciences Division will collaborate with European partners on three new geothermal research projects through the Department of Energy’s membership in GEOTHERMICA, a transnational consortium that combines the in-country financial resources and research expertise of 15 participating countries to demonstrate and validate novel concepts in geothermal energy use. This marks the first…
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Scientists who work to address challenges ranging from vegetation productivity under increasing temperatures to the impact of future drought at continental scale need to rely on data that can connect the biology taking place on land with changes in atmospheric concentrations of water and trace gases like carbon dioxide. Climate and ecosystem modelers, soil microbiologists,…
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A research team led by Berkeley Lab has determined that a tropical weather phenomenon impacting the West Coast will dramatically alter California rainfall by century’s end, leaving the state to contend with a 50% increase in winter rainfall variability by the year 2100. The Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) is a poorly understood rainfall pattern that covers…
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Plant cell walls form the bulk of forest biomass. These cellulose-rich structures undergo physical and chemical modifications as leaves grow and develop, die and decompose, or desiccate when drought strikes. A plant’s cell walls are coated in methyl and acetyl esters–which are released into the atmosphere as methanol and acetic acid by its leaves as…
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This article was written by Jennifer Huber and originally appeared on the website of Berkeley Lab Computing Sciences. Wind-generated ocean waves — “wind waves” — can be major disruptors of coastal communities, marine ecosystems, offshore industries, and shipping, causing considerable environmental, geophysical, and socioeconomic impacts across the globe. Large waves during past winter storms,…
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