Existing techniques to detect pertechnetate in the environment have drawbacks. PNNL’s redox sensor technology uses a gold probe to accurately and efficiently measure low levels of pertechnetate—and possibly other contaminants—in groundwater
A recent paper published in Water Resources Research found that the spatial variability of subsurface sediments, and seasonal fluctuations in a river’s water level, influences the behavior of a uranium contaminant plume, particularly in ...
DOE researchers investigated the role of microbial genetic diversity in two major subsurface biogeochemical processes: nitrification and denitrification.
Researchers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory reviewed the current state of knowledge about the impacts of climate change on soil microorganisms in different climate-sensitive soil ecosystems.
The microbial communities within the loose, friable aggregations of organic and mineral components in soil are highly organized spatially, shaped in part by the structure of the soil itself.
Biogeochemical activity in the hyporheic zone (HZ), sediments where the flowing waters of a river mix with shallow groundwater, supports many of the biological processes that occur within a watershed.
Co-authors of a paper in Hydrological Processes led by PNNL researchers Zhangshuan Hou, Timothy Scheibe, and Christopher Murray, produced a map that identifies different classes of sediments which compose the riverbed along the Hanford ...
A multi-institutional team of scientists developed a new sensitivity analysis framework using Bayesian Networks to quantify which parameters and processes in complex multi-physics models are least understood.
Reactive transport models (RTMs) are used to describe and predict the distribution of chemicals in time and space, in both marine and terrestrial (surface and near-surface) environments where microbially-mediated processes govern...
Hydrologic exchange flows (HEFs) increase the contact between river water and subsurface sediments thereby playing a critical role in biogeochemical and ecological functions along river corridors.
Hydrologic exchange fluxes (HEFs) between rivers and surrounding subsurface environments strongly influence water temperatures and biogeochemical processes. Yet, quantitative measures of their effects on the strength and direction of such e
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Kansas State University found that soil drying significantly affected the structure and function of soil microbial communities.
Soil microbial communities are made of networks of interacting species that dynamically reorganize in a changing environment. Understanding how such microbiomes are organized in nature is important for designing or controlling them in the f
Soil microbiomes are among the most diverse microbial communities on Earth. They also play an immense role in cycling soil carbon, nitrogen, and other nutrients that underpin the terrestrial food web.
