Development and implementation of an in situ high-resolution isotopic microscope for measuring metabolic interactions in soil mesocosms (Final Report)
- Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Environmental Molecular Sciences Lab. (EMSL)
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Univ. of Vienna (Austria)
Many of our planet’s ecosystems rely on the activities of soil microbial communities. These microbes have significant and wide-ranging effects: they metabolize carbon and other nutrients, interact with plants and fungi, and perform other processes important to soil health. However, our ability to directly observe the enzymatic and metabolic activities of microbes within soil is currently limited, not only by the complexity of soil microbial communities themselves, but also by the lack of experimental tools to study them and their molecular interactions in situ. These challenges hinder our understanding of the lifesustaining processes of biomass decomposition and the manner in which it contributes to the movement of freed carbon within soil ecosystems. Here we aim to develop a novel ultrahigh-resolution isotopic microscope that combines complementary imaging modalities to gain insights into metabolic cycling in soil. This final report covers the portion of this work that was completed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 2018 to 2019; the research is continuing through 2022 at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0019012
- OSTI ID:
- 1826186
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-UNC-19012
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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