DOE WEEKLY REPORT

OCTOBER 26, 2009

OFFICE OF BIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH

 

 

I.          This Week’s Accomplishments 

 

Recent Arctic Warming Reverses Long-Term Cooling Trend.  The climate and environment of the Arctic have changed drastically in recent centuries.  New DOE research has synthesized 2000 years of proxy data (data gathered from natural recorders of climate variability such as tree rings, ice cores, historical data, etc.) from lakes above 60° N latitude with complementary ice core and tree ring records, to create an Arctic paleoclimate reconstruction with a 10-year resolution.  This period began with a gradual cooling trend but by the beginning of the 20th century temperatures began to increase rapidly.  The long-term Arctic cooling is consistent with a reduction in total summer solar radiation caused by changes in Earth's orbit, while the rapid and large warming during the past century is consistent with the human-caused warming.

Reference: Kaufman, D.S., D. P. Schneider, N. P. McKay, C. M. Ammann, R.S. Bradley, K.R. Briffa, G.H. Miller, B.L. Otto-Bleisner, J.T. Overpeck, B.M Vinther and JOPL-SI authors, 2009.  Recent Warming Reverses Long-Term Arctic Cooling.  Science, 325, 1236-1239.

 

DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI) Breaks the Terabase Barrier.  The JGI is a national user facility located in Walnut Creek, CA.  In FY 2009, the JGI promised that it would sequence 253 billion (253 Gigabases, Gb) bases of DNA from microbes, plants, and complex biological communities engaged in biology relevant to DOE missions in bioenergy, biogeochemistry, and carbon cycling.  They didn’t just reach this goal.  Instead, aided by new sequencing technologies, they sequenced 1003.9 billion, or a trillion base pairs (a Terabase) of DNA, exceeding their FY 2009 goal by a factor of 4 and their entire FY 2008 production by a factor of 8.  The power of these sequencing technologies is being focused on mission relevant projects, including sequencing for the three DOE Bioenergy Research Centers and user-driven microbial, fungal and plant projects.  The extraordinary new capacity also is the foundation for the JGI’s sequencing of the complete DNA of multi-species natural biological communities, through which many microorganisms are being identified which cannot be isolated from the community for sequencing.  All resulting data are rapidly made freely available to the public.

 

DNA Sequencing Gives Insights into Expanding Nutrient Oceanic Dead Zones.  Oceanic “Dead Zones” characterized by deficits of oxygen and resulting deficits of many forms of multicellular life are expanding, possibly due to global climate change.  To better understand this phenomenon, DOE’s Joint Genome Institute (JGI) has sequenced samples from Saanich Inlet in British Columbia.  Metagenomic sequencing (where the composite DNA from an isolated community is sequenced rather than DNA from individual microbes) was carried out.  Complete sets of genes coding for a photosynthetic mechanism were found in these composite samples, as expected.  However, an extensive set of sulfur-oxidation and nitrogen reducing genes consistent with an anaerobic (no oxygen) life style also was present.  The results also suggest that expanding microbial populations in low-oxygen ocean regions similar to the type found here may play a role in CO2 sequestration.  They may also prove useful as microbe-based monitoring systems for biological responses to changes in ocean Dead Zones.  The research was led by David Walsh and Steven Hallam of the University of British Columbia, working with the JGI’s Susannah Tringe, and is published in the October 23, 2009, issue of Science.

Reference:   David A. Walsh, Elena Zaikova, Charles G. Howes, Young C. Song, Jody J. Wright, Susannah G. Tringe, Philippe D. Tortell, and Steven J. Hallam, “Metagenome of a Versatile Chemolitho­autotroph from Expanding Oceanic Dead Zones” Science Volume 326, pages 578-582 (2009)

 

II.                Program Focus for the Week Ahead, includes Major Projects and Initiatives                                                                                                                                   

 

III.             Public Events/Meetings

 

IV.             Recovery Plan

 

The ARM Climate Research Facility project at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has awarded $47M worth of contracts, including all of their planned major items of equipment (MIEs).   The Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory project at PNNL has awarded or received more than $28M of their planned procurements.  Based on the siting decision, two interim milestones for the Integrated Assessment (IA) research project have been modified to enable a more cost effective main computer system acquisition, spend the funding more rapidly, and complete the project 1-2 months faster.  The Joint Genome Institute (JGI) project at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) has contracts in place for ten of their sixteen Phase 1 purchases of computer equipment, and is currently on target to place the remaining six contracts by the end of November.  The Kbase project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is set for the planned workshop at SC09, a community wiki site is being established, the three pilot projects are developing detailed plans, and the planned hardware purchases are being prioritized.  The Joint Bioenergy Research Institute (JBEI) at LBNL has received an estimate for the infrastructure costs of installing growth chambers at the University of California at Davis.  The Bioenergy Science Center (BESC) at ORNL has completed a procurement package for a plant growth chamber.  The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) at the University of Wisconsin has received a final quote on their visualization equipment.

 

V.                Reform-Based Actions

 

VI.             Meetings/Events

 

VII.          Potential or Expected Press Stories

 

VIII.       Legislative Activity

 

IX.             Senior Personnel Announcements

 

X.                Issues for Attention