Study informs climate resilience strategies in urban, rural areas

Local decision-makers looking for ways to reduce the impact of heat waves on their communities have a valuable new capability at their disposal: a new study on vegetation resilience. ORNL scientists analyzed how well vegetation survived extreme heat events in both urban and rural communities across the country in recent years, providing information to guide climate mitigation pathways—reducing the effect of urban heat islands, for instance. Results were detailed in PNAS Nexus. Read more

SCIENCE WATCH

Retrofitting robotics increases efficiency of neutron experiments with biological materials—The Bio-SANS instrument, located at ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor, is the latest neutron scattering instrument to be retrofitted with state-of-the-art robotics and custom software. The sophisticated upgrade quadruples the number of samples the instrument can measure automatically and significantly reduces the need for human assistance. Bio-SANS is optimized for studying the behavior, shape, and size of complex biological materials. Read more

SMART technology advances automated field sampling—Udaya Kalluri, Kenneth Lowe, Misha Krassovski, Daryl Yang, and KC Cushman demonstrated automated, real-time field sampling at a bioenergy field site on the ORNL reservation. The team used stationary LIDAR and a drone for imaged measurements, with a soil-sampling robotic instrument to be deployed this summer. The SMART project site includes below-ground water sensors and a weather station, monitoring the development of 200 poplar plants and their associated microbiomes as well as collecting, analyzing and transmitting data to the lab to accelerate plant research. Read more

Where there’s smoke: Safe science in the western high mountains—When ORNL’s science mission takes staff off campus, the lab’s safety principles follow. Hear about the tough decision a group of researchers made when last year’s devastating wildfires affected their field sampling in the high mountain passes of the Pacific Northwest. Guiding principles: Evaluating safety for every task, every time, and maintaining a healthy respect for what can go wrong. Read more

Tuskan discusses plant-based sustainable aviation fuel on PBS NewsHour—In an interview with science correspondent Miles O’Brien on PBS NewsHour, Jerry Tuskan detailed how bioenergy crops can help meet the nation’s target of producing 35 billion gallons/year of sustainable aviation fuel to reduce the sector’s carbon footprint. Watch here

SPRUCE sheds light on how climate change impacts sensitive ecosystems—DOE’s Office of Science published a feature article about recent results from the Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE) experiment led by ORNL, focused on how climate change may influence carbon-rich ecosystems in the world’s boreal peatlands. Read more

DECARB report focused on biofuels, biomass strategies—John Field provided expertise on sustainable biomass feedstock production for a new DOE report focused on the role of the bioeconomy in US decarbonization strategies. The report, “The Role of Biofuels and Biomass Feedstocks for Decarbonizing the US Economy by 2050,” was produced by DOE’s Decarbonizing Energy through Collaborative Analysis of Routes and Benefits (DECARB) program. Read more

STAFF SPOTLIGHT

Griffiths named vice-president of freshwater science society—Natalie Griffiths has been appointed vice-president of the Society for Freshwater Science, an international organization of aquatic scientists studying freshwater organisms, their communities, and physical processes affecting the ecosystems. Read more

ORNL fellowships launch science careers—Melissa Cregger’s science journey is featured in a look back at how ORNL’s competitive fellowships have helped researchers pursue impactful careers. Her work as a Liane Russell Fellow at ORNL later led to a DOE Early Career award as she studied forest disturbances and soil carbon cycling and focused on plant–microbe interactions as a pathway to plant resilience. Read more

RESEARCHER PROFILE

John Lagergren: Cultivating AI for a plant science revolution

At the crossroads of mathematics and engineering, John Lagergren is building powerful artificial intelligence tools to dramatically advance the pursuit of hardy crops for everything from biofuels and biomaterials to natural carbon storage.

Lagergren, a staff scientist in ORNL’s Plant Systems Biology group, is using his expertise in applied math and machine learning to develop neural networks to quickly analyze the vast amounts of data on plant traits amassed at ORNL’s Advanced Plant Phenotyping Laboratory, or APPL.

"What we’re working toward is a system using AI and automation to take images and extract biologically meaningful traits for genomic analysis, and doing so in a way that is faster, more accurate, and collects data that a human can't see."

The greenhouse-like APPL lab contains one of the most diverse suites of imaging capabilities in the world dedicated to the automated collection of measurements as plants grow, including size, biomass accumulation, photosynthetic activity, water and nitrogen content, stress response, and biochemical composition. The high-resolution data collected by APPL as plants move through day and night allow scientists to quickly identify which genes underpin traits of interest and assess whether genetic modifications made to plants result in improved physical characteristics.

Lagergren’s goal is a single, large-scale machine learning model that’s in line with the general AI trend of creating fewer but much larger, more capable models. 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 .