Skip to main content

PNNL

  • About
  • News & Media
  • Careers
  • Events
  • Research
    • Scientific Discovery
      • Biology
        • Ecosystem Science
        • Human Health
          • Cancer Biology
          • Exposure Science & Pathogen Biology
          • Metabolic Inflammatory Diseases
        • Integrative Omics
          • Advanced Metabolomics
          • Chemical Biology
          • Mass Spectrometry-Based Measurement Technologies
          • Spatial and Single-Cell Proteomics
          • Structural Biology
        • Microbiome Science
          • Biofuels & Bioproducts
          • Human Microbiome
          • Soil Microbiome
          • Synthetic Biology
        • Computational Biology
      • Chemistry
        • Computational Chemistry
        • Chemical Separations
        • Chemical Physics
        • Catalysis
      • Earth & Coastal Sciences
        • Atmospheric Science
          • Atmospheric Aerosols
          • Human-Earth System Interactions
          • Modeling Earth Systems
        • Coastal Science
        • Ecosystem Science
        • Plant Science
        • Subsurface Science
        • Terrestrial Aquatics
      • Materials Sciences
        • Materials in Extreme Environments
        • Precision Materials by Design
        • Science of Interfaces
        • Solid Phase Processing
          • Cold Spray
          • Friction Stir Welding & Processing
          • ShAPE
      • Nuclear & Particle Physics
        • Dark Matter
        • Flavor Physics
        • Fusion Energy Science
        • Neutrino Physics
      • Quantum Information Sciences
    • Sustainable Energy
      • Energy Storage
        • Electrochemical Energy Storage
        • Flexible Loads and Generation
        • Grid Integration, Controls, and Architecture
        • Regulation, Policy, and Valuation
        • Science Supporting Energy Storage
        • Chemical Energy Storage
      • Environmental Management
        • Waste Processing
        • Radiation Measurement
        • Environmental Remediation
      • Fossil Energy
        • Subsurface Energy Systems
        • Carbon Management
          • Carbon Capture
          • Carbon Storage
          • Carbon Utilization
        • Advanced Hydrocarbon Conversion
      • Nuclear Energy
        • Fuel Cycle Research
        • Advanced Reactors
        • Reactor Operations
        • Reactor Licensing
      • Renewable Energy
        • Solar Energy
        • Wind Energy
          • Distributed Wind
          • Offshore Wind
          • Uncertainty Quantification
          • Wildlife and Wind
          • Wind Data Archive and Portal
          • Wind Resource Characterization
        • Energy Equity & Health
        • Marine Energy
          • Environmental Monitoring for Marine Energy
          • Marine Biofouling and Corrosion
          • Marine Energy Resource Characterization
          • Testing for Marine Energy
          • The Blue Economy
        • Hydropower
          • Environmental Performance of Hydropower
          • Hydropower Cybersecurity and Digitalization
          • Hydropower and the Electric Grid
          • Materials Science for Hydropower
          • Pumped Storage Hydropower
          • Water + Hydropower Planning
        • Grid Integration of Renewable Energy
        • Geothermal Energy
      • Transportation
        • Bioenergy Technologies
          • Algal Biofuels
          • Aviation Biofuels
          • Waste-to-Energy and Products
        • Hydrogen & Fuel Cells
        • Vehicle Technologies
          • Emission Control
          • Energy-Efficient Mobility Systems
          • Lightweight Materials
          • Vehicle Electrification
          • Vehicle Grid Integration
      • Energy Efficiency
        • Appliance and Equipment Standards
        • Building Energy Codes
        • Building Technologies
          • Advanced Building Controls
          • Advanced Lighting
          • Building-Grid Integration
        • Building and Grid Modeling
        • Commercial Buildings
        • Federal Buildings
          • Federal Performance Optimization
          • Resilience and Security
        • Grid Resilience and Decarbonization
        • Residential Buildings
          • Building America Solution Center
          • Energy Efficient Technology Integration
          • Home Energy Score
        • Energy Efficient Technology Integration
      • Electric Grid Modernization
        • Emergency Response
        • Grid Analytics
          • AGM Program
          • Tools and Capabilities
        • Grid Architecture
        • Grid Cybersecurity
        • Grid Energy Storage
        • Grid Resilience and Decarbonization
          • Earth System Modeling
          • Energy System Modeling
        • Transmission
        • Distribution
    • National Security
      • Chemical & Biothreat Signatures
        • Contraband Detection
        • Explosives Detection
        • Pathogen Science & Detection
          • Threat-Agnostic Biodefense
      • Cybersecurity
        • Discovery and Insight
        • Proactive Defense
        • Trusted Systems
      • Nuclear Material Science
      • Nuclear Nonproliferation
        • Global Nuclear & Radiological Security
        • Nuclear Explosion Monitoring
        • Nuclear Forensics
        • Radiological & Nuclear Detection
        • Ultra-Sensitive Nuclear Measurements
      • Stakeholder Engagement
        • Disaster Recovery
        • Global Collaborations
        • Legislative and Regulatory Analysis
        • Technical Training
      • Systems Integration & Deployment
        • Additive Manufacturing
        • Deployed Technologies
        • Rapid Prototyping
        • Systems Engineering
      • Threat Analysis
        • Advanced Wireless Security
          • 5G Security
          • RF Signal Detection & Exploitation
        • Climate Security
        • Grid Resilience and Decarbonization
        • Internet of Things
        • Maritime Security
    • Data Science & Computing
      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Graph and Data Analytics
      • Software Engineering
      • Computational Mathematics & Statistics
      • High-Performance Computing
      • Visual Analytics
    • Lab Objectives
    • Publications & Reports
    • Featured Research
  • People
    • Inventors
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Lab Leadership
    • Lab Fellows
    • Staff Accomplishments
  • Partner with PNNL
    • Academia
      • Distinguished Graduate Research Programs
      • Internships
      • Visiting Faculty Program
      • Joint Appointments
      • Joint Institutes
      • Linus Pauling Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship
      • Minority-serving Institutions
    • Community
      • Regional Impact
      • STEM Education
        • Resources
        • Student STEM Ambassadors
        • STEM Ambassadors in the Classroom
      • Philanthropy
      • Volunteering
    • Industry
      • Available Technologies
      • Industry
      • Industry Partnerships
      • Licensing & Technology Transfer
      • Entrepreneurial Leave
  • Facilities & Centers
    • All Facilities
      • Atmospheric Radiation Measurement User Facility
      • Electricity Infrastructure Operations Center
      • Energy Sciences Center
      • Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory
      • Grid Storage Launchpad
      • Institute for Integrated Catalysis
      • Interdiction Technology and Integration Laboratory
      • PNNL Seattle Research Center
      • PNNL-Sequim
      • Radiochemical Processing Laboratory
      • Shallow Underground Laboratory

Breadcrumb

  1. Research
  2. Scientific Discovery
  3. Earth & Coastal Sciences
  4. Terrestrial Aquatics

Terrestrial
Aquatics

Intersections of water
and land rule ecology

  • Biology
  • Chemistry
  • Earth & Coastal Sciences
    • Atmospheric Science
    • Coastal Science
    • Ecosystem Science
    • Plant Science
    • Subsurface Science
    • Terrestrial Aquatics
  • Materials Sciences
  • Nuclear & Particle Physics
  • Quantum Information Sciences
  • News & Updates
  • Publications

For years, PNNL researchers have been part of a wide scientific effort to study how land and water interact. From soils at the pore scale to regions at the watershed scale, they have investigated the interface between terrestrial and aquatic systems, which are ecologically critical and biogeochemically dynamic.

Around the world, aquatic ecosystems dominated by water include streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, estuaries, and oceans. They interact with terrestrial ecosystems beginning with vegetated wetlands in carbon-rich hybrid zones of water and land.

These terrestrial-aquatic zones are relatively small in size, but they have monumental consequences for Earth systems. They capture, store, transform, and release carbon, nitrogen, water, energy, and other entities that influence feedback loops with aquatic environments, land ecosystems, the atmosphere, and climate.

Carbon cycles and more

Some scientists at PNNL specialize in the carbon cycle of soils, which sequester much of the Earth’s carbon, and—depending on conditions of wetting and drying—release it back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

Others monitor biogeochemical exchanges that occur in riverine hyporheic zones, where fresh water and groundwater mix in reactive regions of sediment and rock.

Still others at the lab specialize in studies of permafrost, which can be fairly described as sites of terrestrial-aquatic interchange.

PNNL-Sequim is the only coastal research site within the national laboratory system of the Department of Energy (DOE). Researchers there support DOE missions related to sustainable energy (including algal biofuels and ocean-wave energy), coastal hazards risks, wetlands health, marine chemical transport hazards, and biofouling.

Other researchers at PNNL were part of recent studies sponsored by the DOE’s Terrestrial Ecosystem Science program, including a six-year effort investigating soil carbon biogeochemistry.

One ecologist at the lab inspired and now directs an international consortium of researchers called the Worldwide Hydrobiogeochemical Observation Network for Dynamic River Systems (WHONDRS). In a world where thousands of dams are emplaced on rivers annually, WHONDRS researchers collectively aim to understand the hydrologic, biogeochemical, and microbial impacts of the high-frequency water level fluctuations that dams engender.

The TAI Gap

Still other scientists at PNNL are part of a growing effort to incorporate terrestrial-aquatic interfaces (TAIs) into Earth systems models. TAIs are where fully terrestrial ecosystems transition to those that are fully aquatic—the largely coastal areas of the planet that some scientists say go from “boots to boats.”

To date, Earth system models only include static fractions of dry land and open water. That approach misses much of what is in between: an ecologically critical hybrid of wet-to-dry features that mark coastal areas and that are global hotspots of biological, biogeochemical, and ecological activity. In 2016, DOE sponsored a landmark workshop to correct what it called the “TAI gap” in Earth system models. The resulting report on research priorities was co-authored by a PNNL soil microbiologist.

Top Stories

SEPTEMBER 21, 2022
Staff Accomplishment

PNNL Earth Scientist Publishes Synopsis of Gulf Coast Restoration Needs

Read
woman with long brown hair standing outside by a river
APRIL 27, 2022
Feature

A Watershed Moment: Key Findings About Potential Drinking Water Contamination

Read
A bright photograph of a river running through agricultural land
APRIL 26, 2022
Feature

Studying Water in the Mountain Air

Read
rocky
SEE MORE RELATED NEWS

Featured Research

MAY 26, 2022
Research Highlight

A New Approach to Enhance Transferability and Mutual Benefit of Research Outcomes

Read
Researchers in the field - ICON
SEPTEMBER 27, 2021
Research Highlight

Microbial Community Composition and Local Environmental Conditions Contribute to Nutrient Cycling along Riverbanks

Read
columbia river
SEPTEMBER 27, 2021
Research Highlight

Simulations Indicate that a History of Flooding Affects Microbial Resilience

Read
illustration of relationship between flooding and microbial resilience
SEE MORE RELATED HIGHLIGHTS

Facilities & Centers

Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

PNNL

  • Get in Touch
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Doing Business
    • Environmental Reports
    • Security & Privacy
    • Vulnerability Disclosure Program
  • Research
    • Scientific Discovery
    • Sustainable Energy
    • National Security
Subscribe to PNNL News
Department of Energy Logo Battelle Logo
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is managed and operated by Battelle for the Department of Energy
  • YouTube
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn