The Subsurface Biogeochemical Research and Terrestrial Ecosystem Science programs within the Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) held their first annual joint investigators meeting May 6-7, 2014, in Potomac, Maryland, just north of Washington, D.C.
Abstracts of ongoing research projects in or associated with the SBR and TES programs in 2014 are included in this PDF.
| 8:00-9:55 am | Overview of Programs and Strategic Directions | P. Bayer | |
| 8:00-8:05 am | Welcome and Introductory Comments | P. Bayer | |
| 8:05-8:20 am | BER Programs | S. Weatherwax | |
| 8:20-8:35 am | CESD Programs & Strategic Directions | G. Geernaert | |
| 8:35-8:55 am | Advanced Simulation Capability for Energy (ACME) | D. Koch | |
| 8:55-9:15 am | CESD Data/Modeling Efforts | J. Hnilo | |
| 9:15-9:35 am | TES Program Goals, Objectives, Program Structure and Highlights | D. Stover | |
| 9:35-9:55 am | SBR Program Goals, Objectives, Program Structure and Highlights | D. Lesmes | |
| 9:55-10:15 am | Break | ||
| 10:15-12:15 pm | Plenary Session I — Mechanistic Modeling of Terrestrial Environments: “Bedrock to Atmosphere” | Lesmes | |
| 10:15-10:45 am | The GEWaSC Framework: A Genome-Enabled Approach to MultiScale Modeling of Complex Microbial, Biogeochemical and Hydrological Processes | C. Steefel, E. Brodie | |
| 10:45-11:15 am | NGEE-Arctic: Migrating Knowledge across Scales to Improve Climate Prediction | P. Thornton | |
| 11:15-11:45 am | Diagnosing Scaling Behavior of Groundwater with a Fully-Integrated, High Resolution Hydrologic Model Simulated over the Continental US: Watersheds to Continents | R. Maxwell | |
| 11:45-12:15 pm | Multiscale Modeling of Land-Atmosphere Interactions in CESM | S. Denning | |
| 12:15-2:00 pm | Lunch | ||
| 12:30-2:00 pm | Working Group Sessions | ||
| Hg Working Group | T. Barkay, S. Brooks, N.Yee | ||
| Rads Working Group | S. Fendorf. N. Hess, B. Powell | ||
| 2:00-5:00 pm | Poster Session I | ||
| 2:00-3:30 pm | Poster Subsession A | ||
| 3:30-5:00 pm | Poster Subsession B | ||
| 7:00-8:30 pm | Concurrent Sessions - I | ||
| Concurrent Session 1: SPRUCE | Stover | ||
| 7:00-7:20 pm | The S1 Bog Carbon Cycle and Projected Warming Responses for the SPRUCE Experiment | P. Hanson | |
| 7:20-7:40 pm | Coupling Peat Decomposition and Metagenomics to Incorporate Molecular Scale Processes into Climate Models | J. Kostka | |
| 7:40-8:00 pm | Do all 'Bogs' have Similar Anaerobic Carbon Dynamics and Microbial Community Structure? Putting the SPRUCE Site in a Regional Perspective | S. Bridgham | |
| 8:00-8:20 pm | Organic N cycling at SPRUCE | K. Hofmockel | |
| 8:20 pm | Discussion | ||
| 8:30 pm | Adjourn | ||
| Concurrent Session 2: Science Advances Enabled by EMSL Capabilities | Bayer/Hess | ||
| 7:00-7:10 pm | An Overview of EMSL Science and an Example from Recent Structural Studies of the Major Pilin Protein from Geobacter sulfurreducens | K. Mueller | |
| 7:10-7:20 pm | High-Resolution Molecular Profiling of Permafrost Soil Organic Carbon Composition and Degradation | B. Gu | |
| 7:20-7:30 pm | Multi-System Analysis of Microbial Biofilms | M. Marshall | |
| 7:30-7:40 pm | Pore-Scale and Continuum Simulation of Microfluidics Experiments on Reactive Transport and Multiphase Flow Conducted at EMSL | A. Valocchi | |
| 7:40-7:50 pm | X-ray Tomographic Imaging of Hydraulic Modeling of Plant Roots | C. Liu | |
| 7:50-8:00 pm | Connecting Soil Organic Matter (SOM) Residence Time with SOM Molecular Structure and the Soil Environment | M. Torn | |
| 8:00-8:10 pm | Integrated Soil Organic C Analyses at EMSL Enable New Understanding of Soil C Protection Mechanisms | V. Bailey | |
| 8:10-8:20 pm | Uranium Immobilization in an Iron- and Organic Matter-Rich Rhizosphere of a Native Wetland Plant | D. Kaplan | |
| 8:20 pm | Discussion | ||
| 8:30 pm | Adjourn | ||
| Concurrent Session 3: Inorganic Biogeochemistry | Lesmes | ||
| 7:00-7:20 pm | Electron Transfer and Atom Exchange Between Fe(II) and Structural Fe(III) in Clays | M. Scherer | |
| 7:20-7:40 pm | Reactivity of Iron-Bearing Phyllosilicates with Uranium and Chromium Through Redox Transition Zones | B. Burgos | |
| 7:40-8:00 pm | Dominant Mechanisms of Uranium-Phosphate Reactions in Subsurface Sediments | J. Catalano | |
| 8:00-8:20 pm | Scaling of Molecular Processes to Quantify Biogeochemical Reaction and Transport of Uranium in Subsurface Systems | P. O’Day | |
| 8:20 pm | Discussion | ||
| 8:30 pm | Adjourn | ||
| Concurrent Session 4: Hydrobiogeochemistry | Hirsch/Kuperberg | ||
| 7:00-7:20 pm | Methane Oxidation in Boreal Peatlands: A Joint Field, Laboratory and Modeling Investigation | R. Neumann | |
| 7:20-7:40 pm | Microbial Dynamics in Arctic Tundra Soils: The Interplay of Plants, Soils, and Extreme Climate | M. Wallenstein | |
| 7:40-8:00 pm | Strikingly Different Form of Organic Carbon in Soils of Temperate and Permafrost Soils: Implications for Carbon and Metal Cycling | S. Myneni | |
| 8:00-8:20 pm | Fate of Uranium During Transport Across the Groundwater-Surface Water Interface | P. Jaffe | |
| 8:20 pm | Discussion | ||
| 8:30 pm | Adjourn | ||
| 8:00-9:00 am | Plenary Session II | Hirsch | |
| 8:00-8:30 am | Model-Data Synthesis of Ecosystem Responses to Elevated CO2: From Deserts to Temperate Forests of the U.S | A. Walker | |
| 8:30-9:00 am | Integrating Microbial Ecology with Hydro-Biogeochemistry | J. Stegen | |
| 9:00-12:00 pm | Poster Session II | ||
| 9:00-10:30 am | Poster Subsession C | ||
| 10:30-12:00 pm | Poster Subsession D | ||
| 12:00-1:30 pm | Lunch | ||
| 1:30-3:00 pm | Plenary Session III — Plant Genomics to Ecosystem Function | Lesmes | |
| 1:30-2:00 pm | The Challenges and Opportunities for Extending Plant Genomics to Climate Research and Modeling | D. Weston | |
| 2:00-2:30 pm | Hydraulic Redistribution of Water through Plant Roots - Implications for Carbon Cycling and Energy Flux at Multiple Scales | Z. Cardon | |
| 2:30-3:00 pm | Multiscale Modeling of Ecosystem Structure and Function | G. Katul | |
| 3:00-4:30 pm | Concurrent Sessions — II | ||
| Concurrent Session 5: Disturbances and Responses in Terrestrial Ecosystems | Stover | ||
| 3:00-3:20 pm | B4WarmED: Warming X Rainfall Manipulation Shifts Integrated Soil and Plant Community Processes in a Boreal Ecotone Experiment | P. Reich | |
| 3:20-3:40 pm | Carbon and Energy Balance Consequences of Widespread Mortality in Pinon-Juniper Woodlands | M. Litvak | |
| 3:40-4:00 pm | Resistance and Resilience of a Grassland Ecosystem to Climate Extremes | M. Smith | |
| 4:00-4:20 pm | Deconvolving Local Versus Regional Controls over Plant and Ecosystem Responses to Climate Change in Pacific Northwest Prairies | L. Pfeifer-Meister | |
| 4:20 pm | Discussion | ||
| 4:30 pm | Adjourn | ||
| Concurrent Session 6: Arctic | Kuperberg | ||
| 3:00-3:20 pm | Geophysical Evidence for Surface-Subsurface Interactions in Arctic Tundra | S. Hubbard | |
| 3:20-3:40 pm | Geomorphological Controls on Water and Terrestrial Ecosystem Processes within Ice-Rich Polygonal Landscapes | C. Wilson | |
| 3:40-4:00 pm | Multi-Disciplinary Research Targets Improved Representation of Arctic Ecosystems in Earth System Models | D. Graham | |
| 4:00-4:20 pm | The Impact of Permafrost Carbon Loss on the Carbon Balance of an Experimentally Warmed Tundra Ecosystem | T. Schuur | |
| 4:20 pm | Discussion | ||
| 4:30 pm | Adjourn | ||
| Concurrent Session 7: Environmental Microbiology | Bayer | ||
| 3:00-3:20 pm | Diversity and Metabolic Potential of the Terrestrial Subsurface Microbiome and its Influence on Biogeochemical Cycling | J. Banfield | |
| 3:20-3:40 pm | Omics and Geochemistry: the ENIGMA 100-Well Survey | T. Hazen | |
| 3:40-4:00 pm | Hg(0) Oxidation by Anaerobic Bacteria | N. Yee | |
| 4:00-4:20 pm | Sulfur-Mediated Electron Shuttling during Bacterial Iron Reduction | T. Flynn | |
| 4:20 pm | Discussion | ||
| 4:30 pm | Adjourn | ||
| Breakout Session 8: "Building Better Modeling Tools for Practitioners" | Lesmes | ||
| 3:00-3:15 pm | Experiment-Inspired Software Design and Ecosystem Modular Testing for CLM Development | D. Wang | |
| 3:15-3:30 pm | Expanding the Role of Reactive Transport Modeling within the Biogeochemical Sciences | L. Li | |
| 3:30-3:45 pm | Lighting Talks | Multiple Presenters | |
| 3:45-4:30 pm | Discussion | ||
| 4:30 pm | Adjourn | ||
| 4:30-5:30 pm | Plenary Session IV — How Science Informs Policy | Kuperberg | |
| 4:30-4:45 pm | Science & Policy — An Investment Perspective | J. Bucknall, World Bank | |
| 4:45-5:00 pm | Science & Policy — A Diplomatic Perspective | D. Reidmiller, U.S. Dept of State | |
| 5:00-5:15 pm | Science & Policy — A Research Funding Perspective | K. Barrett, NOAA | |
| 5:15-5:30 pm | Science & Policy — A Scientific Perspective | P. Duffy, USGCRP | |
| 5:30-5:45 pm | Closeout/Announcements | ||
| 5:45-7:00 pm | Dinner | ||
| 7:00 pm | Adjourn | ||
| 7:00-8:30 pm | Team Meetings | ||
| NGEE-Arctic | S. Wullschleger | ||
| SPRUCE | P. Hanson | ||
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