Scientists dig into wildfire predictions, long-term impacts

Wildfires are an ancient force shaping the environment, but they have grown in frequency, range, and intensity in response to a changing climate. At ORNL, scientists like Fernanda Santos and Yetta Jager are working on several fronts to better understand and predict these events and what they mean for the carbon cycle and biodiversity. Their research ranges from exploring wildfire evolutionary impacts to building a framework for practices like forest thinning and safe wildlife passages. Read more

SCIENCE WATCH

Microalgae vs. mercury—In the search for ways to fight methylmercury in global waterways, ORNL scientists discovered that some forms of phytoplankton can successfully degrade the potent neurotoxin. Phytoplankton are known as accumulators of methylmercury, introducing the neurotoxin into the food chain where it makes its way to fish and eventually to humans. But researchers found that some forms of phytoplankton are also good at detoxifying methylmercury, even where there is no sunlight. Read more

Nearly 100 next-gen scientists intern with BESSD—Nearly 100 interns were introduced to Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s biological and environmental research over the summer of 2023 as mentors and students were eager to share knowledge and skills to address the nation’s energy and environmental challenges. They joined 700 students visiting ORNL this summer for in-person internships. Read more

Biological Monitoring and Abatement Program—Originally founded in the 1980s to monitor the effectiveness of remediation actions in streams following impacts from DOE activities on the Oak Ridge Reservation in East Tennessee, ORNL’s Biological Monitoring and Abatement Program is now internationally recognized and provides a valuable case study for DOE and the nation. Read more

New initiative focuses on biopreparedness—BESSD researchers will join an ORNL Biopreparedness Research Virtual Environment (BRaVE) initiative newly funded by DOE’s Office of Science to prepare for and respond to future biological threats. Jack Cahill and Jennifer Morrell-Falvey will support a project led by Scott Retterer, “Structure-guided Design of Materials to Optimize the Abiotic-Biotic Material Interface.” The project seeks to provide insights into how researchers can improve materials critical to pandemic response and develop best practices for handling sensitive biological samples during multi-institutional collaborations. Read more

Pumped storage hydropower on US mine land—ORNL researchers are evaluating the use of pumped storage hydropower on current or former mine land to support the deployment of new wind and solar power resources. ORNL’s Scott DeNeale and Eve Tysbina described the project already underway for DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations in a Hydro Review article. Read more

STAFF SPOTLIGHT

Wang receives Ecological Society of America award—Yaoping Wang received the 2023 Early Career Award from the Asian Ecology Section of the Ecological Society of America. The award recognizes the research excellence of early career section members and is given for an outstanding ecological research paper published in the past year. Wang was first author on the Nature Communications paper, “Quantification of human contribution to soil moisture-based terrestrial aridity.” Read more

IN THE COMMUNITY

NGEE Arctic team supports BARC Science and Culture Fair—Colleen Iversen, Peter Thornton and Bob Bolton, members of the Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments Arctic project team, hosted children’s science activities and presented their tundra research findings as part of the BARC Science and Culture Fair sponsored by the UIC Science Native Corporation in Utqia?vik, Alaska, in August. Read more

RESEARCHER PROFILE

Madhavi Martin: Shedding light on natural processes

Madhavi Martin brings a physicist’s tools and perspective to biological and environmental research at ORNL, supporting advances in bioenergy, soil carbon storage, and environmental monitoring, and even helping solve a murder mystery.

“Having a certain stick-to-itiveness is important in science, to push for new ideas and to get projects off the ground and see them through.”

Martin’s research revolves around the interaction of light and matter, leveraging a technique called laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, or LIBS, that gives scientists the ability to rapidly produce an exact “chemical fingerprint” of a sample. Read more

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.