The novel fungal strain, Fusarium sp. DS 682, was isolated from the rhizosphere of the perennial grass, Bouteloua gracilis , at the Konza Prairie Biological Station in Kansas. This fungal strain is common across North American grasslands and is resilient to environmental fluctuations. The draft...

The soil microbiome is central to the cycling of carbon and other nutrients and to the promotion of plant growth. Despite its importance, analysis of the soil microbiome is difficult due to its sheer complexity, with thousands of interacting species. Here, we reduced this complexity by developing...

As part of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s (PNNL) Science Focus Area program, we are investigating the impact of environmental change on microbial community function in grassland soils. Three grassland soils, representing different moisture regimes, were selected for ultra-deep...

The literature on the effects of radiation on the properties of various polymers and composites has been briefly reviewed for the purpose of identifying polymeric materials that could be irradiated to improve their performance. Radiation treatment of polymers may lead to cross-linking or chain...

Scientific advancements in healthcare driven both by technological breakthroughs and an aging and increasingly obese population have lead to a changing medical device market. Complex products and devices are being developed to meet the demands of leading edge medical procedures.Specialized materials...

An alternative method is presented for determining the maximum acceptable dose in products irradiated in electron beam processes. When the presentation of an individual product to the radiation field results in a high dose uniformity ratio, this can present a challenge for accurate testing of a...

Ionizing radiation has been found to be widely applicable in modifying the structure and properties of polymers, and can be used to tailor the performance of either bulk materials or surfaces. Fifty years of research in polymer radiation chemistry has led to numerous applications of commercial and...

Today, the most common methods used for medical device sterilisation are by gaseous ethylene oxide and by electron beam or gamma irradiation. With X-ray sterilisation about to enter the market, its material compatibility needs to be assessed at doses typically encountered during a sterilisation...

Predicting phenotypic expression from genomic and environmental information is arguably the greatest challenge in today’s biology. Being able to survey genomic content, e.g., as single-nucleotide polymorphism data, within a diverse population and predict the phenotypes of external traits, represents...

Soil microorganisms play fundamental roles in cycling of soil carbon, nitrogen, and other nutrients, yet we have a poor understanding of how soil microbiomes are shaped by their nutritional and physical environment. In this study, we investigated the successional dynamics of a soil microbiome during...

The direct and diffused components of downward shortwave radiation (SW), and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) at the Earth surface play an essential role in biochemical (e.g. photosynthesis) and physical (e.g. energy balance) processes that control weather and climate conditions, and...

Soil respiration (Rs), the flow of CO2 from the soil surface to the atmosphere, is one of the largest carbon fluxes in the terrestrial biosphere. The spatial variability of Rs is both large and poorly understood, limiting our ability to robustly scale it in space. One factor in Rs spatial...

The high temporal variability of the soil-to-atmosphere CO2 flux (soil respiration, RS) has been studied at hourly to multiannual timescales, but remains less well understood than RS spatial variability. How RS fluxes vary and are auto-correlated at various time lags has practical implications for...