Projects

Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists are gathering and analyzing data on biogeochemical processes in urban areas to better understand how the natural and built environments interact and affect the microclimate of people who reside there. Their discoveries provide insight into how tree plantings and greenspace could alleviate heat in urban areas, where most of the world’s population resides.

Increasing our confidence in climate projections for high-latitude regions of the world requires a coordinated set of investigations that target improved process understanding and model representation of important ecosystem-climate feedbacks. The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments (NGEE) Arctic seeks to address this challenge by quantifying the physical, chemical, and biological behavior of terrestrial ecosystems in Alaska.

An experiment to assess the response of northern peatland ecosystems to increases in temperature and exposures to elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

The Climate Change Science Institute (CCSI) integrates climate science activities across Oak Ridge National Laboratory, bringing together approximately 130 scientists in the areas of (i) earth system modeling, (ii) data integration, dissemination, and informatics, (iii) terrestrial ecosystem and carbon cycle science, and (iv) climate impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability science.

The WaDE: Watershed Dynamics And Evolution (WaDE) Science Focus Area advances predictive understanding of how dominant processes controlling watershed hydro-biogeochemical function operate under a range of hydrologic regimes and vary along stream networks that drain heterogeneous land covers.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Biological Monitoring and Abatement Program uses an integrated approach for determining stream health, quantifying key metrics to assess both water quality and biodiversity, including concentrations and bioaccumulation of contaminants, fish and invertebrate community taxa richness, and laboratory-based standardized tests of toxicity for aquatic organisms. 

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory designed, synthesized and tested nontoxic but high-functioning lubricant additives for use in electrical turbines installed in aquatic environments, which will aid the adoption of marine energy.

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have initiated a one-of-a-kind project to create the first central repository for geo-referenced and -attributed data on fish passage facilities at hydropower installations across the United States.