Earth & Environmental Sciences Area

Deep underground, heat is constant — and virtually untapped for round-the-clock energy. Our scientists in Berkeley Lab's Earth & Environmental Sciences Area are developing tools to safely unlock that energy by monitoring tiny vibrations in rocks more than a mile belowground over weeks and months. The goal? Expand geothermal energy as a 24/7 power source for the American West and beyond. 🌋💡

Learn more via first link in comments below!

🌱A recent study led by EESA scientists shows how microbes from the rhizosphere–the region of soil made up of plant roots and their associated microbes–can help plants better recover from drought.

https://bit.ly/4kXbDFS

Managing Microbes for More Resilient Plants – Earth and Environmental Sciences Area EESA scientists curated a microbial community that helped a species of grass better recover from drought.

🎉 Congratulations to the scientists selected for an Early Career Research Program award! Their bold projects are addressing challenges in physics, geothermal energy, and computing. Details via link in comments below ⬇️

📷: The ECRP recipients. Top, from left: Timon Heim, Harrison Lisabeth, Aditi Krishnapriyan. Bottom, from left: Daniel Carney, Callum Wilkinson.


Earth & Environmental Sciences Area
Berkeley Lab Computing Sciences

Accurate water-quality forecasting is essential for managing rivers and watersheds. New research led by EESA shows that combining multiple machine-learning models–ensembling–significantly improves water-temperature predictions, even in data-poor regions. These insights show how can support better decision making towards secure systems.

https://bit.ly/44RSmPo

We're excited to announce that Peter Nico has been appointed as the Director of EESA's Energy Geosciences Division (EGD)!

Nico, with almost 20 years of experience in EGD and deep expertise in environmental chemistry and geoscience, brings a demonstrated commitment to mentorship and team science to the role.

His wide-ranging research, from studying how contaminants move around in the environment to the breakdown of rocks, will continue to be a valuable asset as he crafts the future of the division.

Learn more: https://bit.ly/4gedgNd Berkeley Lab

Peter Nico Appointed Director of Berkeley Lab’s Energy Geosciences Division With 20 years of experience at Berkeley Lab and an expertise in environmental chemistry, Nico will lead the future of Berkeley Lab’s research addressing water and energy challenges

👩‍🔬 🌳 🪨 “When you’re walking past a tree or forest, think of where the roots are going. Sometimes, with little soil, plants are basically growing in rock fractures. It’s time to think beyond soil as the sole source of –and our study can help us do that.” - Berkeley Lab postdoc Kelsey Crutchfield-Peters and lead author of a study exploring nitrogen cycling in deep-rooted forests.

The research uncovered a significant pool of dissolved organic in a deeply weathered bedrock rhizosphere—an order of magnitude higher than in upper-layer of soils. As ecosystems face changing environmental conditions and severe disturbances, this study can help us understand where and how forests access nutrients, which is essential to informing the prediction of ecosystem function and resilience. Learn more:

Where Roots Run Deep, Nutrients Flow – Earth and Environmental Sciences Area At a glance, nitrogen seems to be an extremely abundant element, comprising nearly 80% of Earth’s atmosphere. But for organisms to actually access nitrogen–an essential building block for proteins, DNA molecules, and more–the element must be “fixed” by bacteria that convert atmospheric nit...

🌎 Depending on the season, geography, or in response various extremes like heatwaves and droughts, energy supply and demand can change a lot. Underground storage can help balance supply and demand changes, but how do you monitor something invisible from the surface?

Our scientists at Berkeley Lab are studying how to continuously and autonomously monitor underground gas storage wells using fiber optic sensing: tiny fibers that pulse light, which backscatters to reveal information about the physical conditions of the structure or material they're attached to.

“This new technology and research represents a significant step forward in modernizing how we monitor and manage underground gas storage. It could help move our underground energy systems to a future in which we respond to disruptions and issues proactively, as opposed to reactively.” - Linqing Luo, lead author of the publication.

Learn more: https://eesa.lbl.gov/2025/07/16/fiber-optic-sensing-for-smarter-and-safer-natural-gas-storage/ Pacific Gas and Electric Company

Fiber Optic Sensing for Smarter and Safer Natural Gas Storage – Earth and Environmental Sciences Area Energy supply and demand can drastically change across seasons, geography, and in response to various extremes like heatwaves or floods. Storing excess energy underground when demand is low and extracting the extra resources when demand is high can help balance these supply and demand changes, while...

🧂🥼 A lot of our potential supply has too much salt and other contaminants for human-use. But what if there was an energy-efficient way to filter them out?

Scientists supported by the Berkeley Lab-led National Alliance for Water Innovation have developed a new technology that uses electrical conductivity that could help membranes separate salt and other contaminates from brackish and from oil and gas extraction.

With the ability to turn these once hard-to-treat waters into a potential source of water for agriculture, this technology can help to largely expand our water supply. 🌍 🙌 Learn more: https://bit.ly/45QBJVJ Active Membranes, NATIONAL Energy Technology Lab, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, California Department of Water Resources

New Membrane Technology Could Expand Access to Water for Agricultural and Industrial Use Berkeley Lab-led Water Hub supports company in advancing desalination methods