Predictive Understanding of Watershed Systems. Watersheds serve as the fundamental hydrological units that connect terrestrial and aquatic systems. The overarching goal of the Subsurface Biogeochemical Research program is to advance a robust, predictive understanding of watershed function and response to perturbations as needed to address U.S. energy and environmental challenges. [Image courtesy Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory]

Mission

The Subsurface Biogeochemical Research (SBR) program seeks to advance a robust, predictive understanding of how watersheds function as integrated hydrobiogeochemical systems and how these systems respond to perturbations caused by changes in weather patterns, extremes, land use, water management, vegetation cover, snowmelt timing, and nutrient and contaminant release. SBR researchers are encouraged to use a systems approach to probe the multiscale structure and functioning of watersheds and to capture this understanding in mechanistic models representing both the complexities of the terrestrial subsurface and ecohydrological interactions with surface waterbodies and vegetation.

To accomplish this goal, SBR has five priority research objectives that are being pursued through a network of watershed testbeds within the contiguous United States. These objectives include:

Quantifying how biological behavior, abiotic-biotic interactions, and molecular transformations control the mobility of contaminants (e.g., uranium, technetium, and mercury), nutrients (e.g., nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon), and critical biogeochemical elements (e.g., sulfur, iron, and manganese).
Quantifying and predicting how hydrology drives fine-scale biogeochemical processes in surface-subsurface systems.
Translating biogeochemical behavior across relevant molecular to watershed scales to accurately and tractably predict flows of water, nutrients, and contaminants.
Identifying, quantifying, and predicting watershed responses to natural and anthropogenic perturbations and shifts to new states.
Translating predictive understanding of watershed system function and evolution into near- and long-term environmental and energy strategies.

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Research Highlights

This research was sponsored by the SBR program, except for select highlights related to SBR research (noted as such) that were funded by other BER programs. Click on the "read more" link for information on funding sources.