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...

"DNA Viral Diversity, Abundance, and Functional Potential Vary across Grassland Soils with a Range of Historical Moisture Regimes" Soil viruses are abundant, but the influence of the environment and climate on soil viruses remains poorly understood. Here, we addressed this gap by comparing the...

"Visualizing the Hidden Half: Plant-Microbe Interactions in the Rhizosphere" Plant roots and the associated rhizosphere constitute a dynamic environment that fosters numerous intra- and interkingdom interactions, including metabolite exchange between plants and soil mediated by root exudates and the...

To better understand the effects of solution chemistry on particle aggregation in the complex legacy tank wastes at the Hanford (WA) and Savannah River (SC) sites, we have performed a series of tumbler small- and ultra-small-angle neutron scattering experiments on 20 wt % solid slurries of...

The recently developed real-time nuclear–electronic orbital (RT-NEO) approach provides an elegant framework for treating electrons and selected nuclei, typically protons, quantum mechanically in nonequilibrium dynamical processes. However, the RT-NEO approach neglects the motion of the other nuclei...

The molecular speciation of aluminum (Al3+) in alkaline solutions is fundamental to its precipitation chemistry within a number of industrial applications that include ore refinement and industrial processing of Al wastes. Under these conditions, Al3+ is predominantly Al(OH)4–, while at high [Al3+]...

Understanding, controlling, and preventing aggregation of suspended particles is of fundamental importance in a number of scientific and industrial fields. There are several methods for analyzing aggregate morphology and aggregation kinetics, but small-angle scattering (SAS) techniques provide...