Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is essential for climate change mitigation, but no single standardized methodology exists for evaluating project-level net carbon removal from the atmosphere. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and collaborators from Lawrence Berkeley and National Renewable Energy national laboratories and UC Berkeley, have looked into the…
Natural ecosystems can be used to offset manmade CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions that we add to the atmosphere, but the accounting needs to be right for carbon offset policies to be effective. For years, it’s been suspected that forest inventory and, more recently, biometeorological methods bias the carbon sequestration equation by potentially miscounting the…
Three graduate students have earned Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Program awards to perform their doctoral dissertation research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The prestigious award helps cover living expenses and travel for 60 students from universities across the nation. Their proposed research projects…
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientist and head of the Lab’s Carbon Initiative Jennifer Pett-Ridge has been selected as a fellow of the Ecological Society of America (ESA). ESA designates fellows of the society for certain members who have made outstanding contributions to a wide range of fields served by ESA. Pett-Ridge was selected for her work in soil…
Particulate soil carbon may be more vulnerable to microbial decomposition under warmer temperatures associated with climate change. Soil organic matter contains more carbon than plants and the atmosphere combined. Soil is increasingly considered for its potential role in climate mitigation due to its ability to sequester more carbon, but it also is critical to understand…
Ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms (AOM) use ammonia for energy and account for the annual oxidation of approximately 2.3 trillion kilograms of nitrogen in soil, freshwater, the subsurface and man-made ecosystems. But one major question that has remained unanswered for decades is how different AOM species coexist in the same environment: do they compete for ammonia or…