Researchers from the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), a Department of Energy user facility at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, are partnering with collaborators to collect soil cores from a variety of ecosystems, including urban, agricultural, prairie, forest, and desert ecosystems across North America.
Through the 1000 Soils Research Pilot, EMSL is pioneering the development of a first-of-its-kind database of molecular-level data from belowground ecosystems.
Community collaboration is key
So far, 20 cores have been shipped to EMSL from academic institutions and federal partners like Washington State University (WSU) Vancouver and the National Ecological Observatory Network, said Emily Graham, an Earth scientist and leader of EMSL's Biogeochemical Transformations Integrated Research Platform.
Another 60 cores are expected to be collected over the next few months, and the project is open for additional researchers to join the effort
