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FY2005 FRED Database Project Description:

Project Information

 

 

Project Title:

Advanced Plant Growth

 

Project I.D.:

FWP-01FE03

 

FE Program:

Carbon Sequestration

 

Research Type:

To Be Provided          

 

Funding Memorandum:

Field Office Work Agreement            

 

 

Project Performer

 

 

Performer Type:

DOE/National Laboratory

 

Performer:

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)

 

Performer Address:

P.O. Box 1663
528 35th St.

 

Other Project Team Members:

 

 

 

Project Dates

 

 

Project Start Date:

1-Oct-00

 

Project End Date:

30-Nov-01

 

 

Project Location

 

 

City:

Los Alamos

 

State:

NM

 

ZIP Code:

87544-2201

 

Congressional District:

3

 

Responsible FE Site:

NETL

 

 

Project Contact

 

 

Name:

Benson, Richard A.

 

Telephone:

(505) 665-0640

 

Fax Number:

(505) 665-7652

 

Email Address:

 

 

 

DOE/FE Contact

 

 

Name:

Litynski, John T

 

Telephone Number:

(304) 285-1339

 

Site Location:

NETL

 

Email Address:

John.Litynski@netl.doe.gov

 

 

Cost & Funding Info.

 

 

Total Estimated Cost:

$880,000

 

DOE Share:

$880,000

 

Non-DOE Share:

$0

 

 

Project Description

 

 

Project Description:

 Objectives

 i) Develop methods to enhance vegetation growth to maximize carbon storage

ii) Evaluate how carbon transfer form plant to soil depends on water availability

iii) Assess and improve land management practices to increase net carbon storage and increase land

productivity

 

Project Background:

(a) Introduction

Human activities such as burning fossil fuels for energy; deforestation; and aggressive agricultural practices appear to have perturbed the global carbon cycle and have significantly increased atmospheric carbon levels over the last century.  Terrestrial carbon fluxes account for more than half of the carbon transferred between the atmosphere and the earth's surface (ca. 120 gigatons/yr).  By returning even a fraction of the carbon lost from soils and vegetation; we can make a significant contribution to offsetting carbon emissions.  While terrestrial carbon sequestration has been identified as the best short-term carbon sequestration option; applying state-of-the-art science and technology will allow us to maximize net carbon storage and increase land productivity.  Los Alamos National Laboratory and the National Energy Technology Laboratory will lead the Applied Terrestrial Sequestration Partnership in achieving these goals.  This proposal consists of greenhouse studies directed at advanced plant growth; soil microbes and carbon/water interactions.



b) Technical feasibility and performance targets

A range of quantitative mixtures of soil and gob pile material will be tested for plant growth and assess the potential of this approach to increase vegetative cover at sites under remediation.  We will include native species and common site reclamation species.  In addition; preliminary results have demonstrated that treatment with natural metabolites of trees and plants leads to increased growth rates; biomass volume; and carbon dioxide uptake.  The greenhouse studies proposed here will expand these studies to a variety of native plant species; support applied studies at mine reclamation test sites; and extend the work to include investigations of soil microbes and carbon/water interactions.



c) Economic benefit (to fossil energy and scientific communities)

The immediate economic benefit to the fossil energy community of the work proposed here will be improved management practices for mine site reclamation; and more accurate carbon accounting.  Benefits to the scientific community will include better understanding of plant growth and relationships between carbon storage; soil microbes; and water and nutrient utilization.  The information gained during these studies will contribute to our understanding and potentially help improve management for soil productivity and the sustainability of this productivity and carbon storage.

 

Project Accomplishments:

[NOTE: Updated information not available beginning 2004]

30-Sep-02:
Accomplishment: Carbon Sequestration Microbial Gene Indicators                                                     
Description: Have better characterized the differences (signatures) between bare, core and edge toward identifiying the organisms that changed in relative abundance.  The apparent associative nitrogen fixer has been confirmed as a Bradyrhizobium. We also found some general alpha proteobacteria.  The apparent presence of a Rickettsia (a parasite of soil fauna) could not be confirmed. 

· Other potential gene targets are also being considered.  Progress has been made in developing nifH (a nitrogen cycling gene) as a probe. 

· A potential collaboration with a USDA / ARS scientist is being explored and looks very promising to be considerable help in developing the microbial signatures has his experimental systems is a well characterized water shed (Gregory W. McCarty, Soil Scientist, Ph.D., Environmental Quality Laboratory, USDA-ARS, Beltsville MD)



07-Oct-02:
Accomplishment: Plants in Soil and Gob Material Mixtures Have Higher Survival Rates                                
Description: The initial trend of a faster dry-down in the soil and gob materials as compared with the soil/gob mixtures has continued.  It now appears that the mixtures are maintaining a more constant level of moisture.   The soil moisture data in combination with the plant growth and survival data of the present and previous test indicate that more is involved than the effects on the moisture level in these growth media.  Our original hypothesis included a potential nutritional benefit to the plants from N in the gob material.  The present findings appear consistent with this hypothesis.  The amount of N available to plants can have very positive effects on a plant's capacity to withstand limiting water supply, as we have subjected these plants to in this test.  At the end of the growth period of this test we will measure the N content in the plants in each of the sets of the test plants to determine if we can correlate N content with plant growth/ survival in this test.

 

 

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