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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

National contribution to the organization and carrying out monitoring activities on assessment of radiation and ecological situation in uranium tailings of SE 'Vostokredmet' - 15068

In this paper, the legislation governing radiation safety and radioactive waste management in Tajikistan is described. The role and responsibilities of both the regulator and the user as they apply to the remediation of legacy sites are presented, as is the infrastructure for the monitoring of legacy sites. The challenges presented by radiological contamination in Tajikistan and Central Asia are discussed. National and regional commitments with respect to legacy sites remediation in Tajikistan are described. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2023

Water innovation and ecological transformation: entrepreneurial approaches to advancing sustainable solutions

Climate change and decades of water mismanagement have created a "three-headed" global water crisis. People have contaminated water and depleted water sources, and human activity like deforestation and agriculture has altered rainfall patterns; we face the prospect of a 40% shortfall in freshwater supply by 2030. Meanwhile, climate change, water mismanagement and biodiversity loss interact to cause more frequent and severe episodes of too much or too little water, such as storms, floods, droughts, and wildfires.

Bryan, Scott↗
DOE OSTI2014

Associations among hydrologic classifications and fish traits to support environmental flow standards

Classification systems are valuable to ecological management in that they organize information into consolidated units thereby providing efficient means to achieve conservation objectives. Of the many ways classifications benefit management, hypothesis generation has been discussed as the most important. However, in order to provide templates for developing and testing ecologically relevant hypotheses, classifications created using environmental variables must be linked to ecological patterns. Herein, we develop associations between a recent US hydrologic classification and fish traits in order to form a template for generating flow ecology hypotheses and supporting environmental flow standard development. Tradeoffs in adaptive strategies for fish were observed across a spectrum of stable, perennial flow to unstable intermittent flow. In accordance with theory, periodic strategists were associated with stable, predictable flow, whereas opportunistic strategists were more affiliated with intermittent, variable flows. We developed linkages between the uniqueness of hydrologic character and ecological distinction among classes, which may translate into predictions between losses in hydrologic uniqueness and ecological community response. Comparisons of classification strength between hydrologic classifications and other frameworks suggested that spatially contiguous classifications with higher regionalization will tend to explain more variation in ecological patterns. Despite explaining less ecological variation than other frameworks, we contend that hydrologic classifications are still useful because they provide a conceptual linkage between hydrologic variation and ecological communities to support flow ecology relationships. Mechanistic associations among fish traits and hydrologic classes support the presumption that environmental flow standards should be developed uniquely for stream classes and ecological communities, therein.

aquatic conservation↗
DOE OSTI2018

Two key features influencing community assembly processes at regional scale: Initial state and degree of change in environmental conditions

Belowground microbial communities strongly influence ecosystem function such that predicting function may rely on understanding ecological processes that assemble communities. Uncertainty remains, however, in what governs the relative contributions of different ecological processes. To help fill this knowledge gap we test the general hypothesis that both initial state and degree of change in environmental conditions govern the relative contributions of different ecological assembly processes. To do so we leveraged regional-scale nutrient and organic matter addition experiments and used soil organic matter (SOM) as a proxy of integrated soil environmental conditions. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that both the initial amount of SOM and the degree of change in SOM—in response to nutrient addition—influenced the relative contributions of different ecological assembly processes. These influences were most clearly observed at the regional scale, suggesting potential scale dependence. More specifically, nutrient additions homogenized bacterial community composition due to enhanced influences of homogenizing dispersal when SOM content was initially high. In contrast, nutrient additions led to divergence in community composition due to variable selection when initial SOM was low and/or when SOM increased significantly in response to nutrient additions. Our findings indicate important connections among initial conditions, degree of change in environmental variables, and microbial community assembly processes that may influence ecosystem processes. These conceptual inferences highlight a need to strengthen connections between ecological theory and biogeochemical modeling.

Feng, Youzhi↗
DOE OSTI2020

Use of an Alternative Conceptual Model of Vadose Zone Heterogeneity to Evaluate Past Tank Leaks and Other Unplanned Releases within a Tank Farm at the Hanford Site - 20061

Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) requested that U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-Office of River Protection (ORP) consider an evaluation of effects of fine-grained thin sediment layers on transport with a separate alternative conceptual model in its evaluation of the potential impact of tank leaks and other unplanned releases within the tank farm at the Hanford Site. For this alternative model, Ecology recommended that the model be developed based on the general framework of fine-grained units identified by a stakeholder group in their interpretations of variability in moisture content data collected in the vicinity of Waste Management Area (WMA) C. In discussions with DOE-ORP, Ecology acknowledged that the underlying data and interpretations of the occurrence and lateral continuity of the fine-grained thin layers identified by a stakeholder group are uncertain. However, DOE-ORP agreed to Ecology's recommendation and has provided support for the requested evaluation that involved development of an alternative model based on the general framework of the unpublished report by the stakeholder. DOE-ORP considered this evaluation to be a hypothetical evaluation of vadose zone heterogeneities at WMA C. General observations from the range of simulation cases examined in the evaluation of the effects of hypothetical vadose zone heterogeneities at WMA C are as follows. - The movement of the center of mass of the simulated plumes was generally vertically downward below the source for all simulations, including those that incorporated the hypothetical fine-grained units. - All simulations that incorporated hypothetical heterogeneity produced additional plume spreading over what was produced in simulations using Equivalent Homogeneous Media (EHM) model(s)a. The spreading resulted in a broadening of the fringes of the plume, resulting in a wider region of low concentration, but lower peak concentrations associated with the center of mass of the plume. - Simulations that used the silty-sand hydraulic properties, suggested by Ecology for the hypothetical fine-grained units, generally produced similar spreading and slightly lower peak mass flux at the water table when compared to the EHM modeling results. a The EHM-based models used at WMA C do not explicitly include small-scale fine-grained heterogeneities used in the model advocated by Ecology. - Simulations that used the silty-sand hydraulic properties, suggested by Ecology for the hypothetical fine-grained units, generally produced less spreading and an earlier arrival of mass flux at the water table when compared to the use of another set of hydraulic properties from a silty-sand sample collected at a nearby disposal facility. - The EHM representation of the vadose zone generally produced higher peak mass flux and an earlier occurrence of peak fluxes at the water table compared to all analyses incorporating additional hypothetical heterogeneity. Results of this alternative model evaluation of past leaks provided some insight into the transport effects of vadose zone heterogeneities at WMA C that helped resolve Ecology's comments and issues related to the effects of vadose zone heterogeneities on past leaks and losses from the WMA C tank farms area. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2013

A Holistic Framework for Environmental Flows Determination in Hydropower Contexts

Among the ecological science community, the consensus view is that the natural flow regime sustains the ecological integrity of river systems. This prevailing viewpoint by many environmental stakeholders has progressively led to increased pressure on hydropower dam owners to change plant operations to affect downstream river flows with the intention of providing better conditions for aquatic biological communities. Identifying the neccessary magnitude, frequency, duration, timing, or rate of change of stream flows to meet ecological needs in a hydropower context is challenging because the ecological responses to changes in flows may not be fully known, there are usually a multitude of competing users of flow, and implementing environmental flows usually comes at a price to energy production. Realistically, hydropower managers must develop a reduced set of goals that provide the most benefit to the identified ecological needs. As a part of the Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Program, the Instream Flow Project (IFP) was carried out by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and Argon National Laboratory (ANL) as an attempt to develop tools aimed at defining environmental flow needs for hydropower operations. The application of these tools ranges from national to site-specific scales; thus, the utility of each tool will depend on various phases of the environmental flow process. Given the complexity and sheer volume of applications used to determine environmentally acceptable flows for hydropower, a framework is needed to organize efforts into a staged process dependent upon spatial, temporal, and functional attributes. By far, the predominant domain for determining environmental flows related to hydropower is within the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) relicensing process. This process can take multiple years and can be very expensive depending on the scale of each hydropower project. The utility of such a framework is that it can expedite the environmental flow process by 1) organizing data and applications to identify predictable relationships between flows and ecology, and 2) suggesting when and where tools should be used in the environmental flow process. In addition to regulatory procedures, a framework should also provide the coordination for a comprehensive research agenda to guide the science of environmental flows. This research program has further reaching benefits than just environmental flow determination by providing modeling applications, data, and geospatial layers to inform potential hydropower development. We address several objectives within this document that highlight the limitations of existing environmental flow paradigms and their applications to hydropower while presenting a new framework catered towards hydropower needs. Herein, we address the following objectives: 1) Provide a brief overview of the Natural Flow Regime paradigm and existing environmental flow frameworks that have been used to determine ecologically sensitive stream flows for hydropower operations. 2) Describe a new conceptual framework to aid in determining flows needed to meet ecological objectives with regard to hydropower operations. The framework is centralized around determining predictable relationships between flow and ecological responses. 3) Provide evidence of how efforts from ORNL, PNNL, and ANL have filled some of the gaps in this broader framework, and suggest how the framework can be used to set the stage for a research agenda for environmental flow.

dams↗
DOE OSTI2022

microTrait: A Toolset for a Trait-Based Representation of Microbial Genomes

Remote sensing approaches have revolutionized the study of macroorganisms, allowing theories of population and community ecology to be tested across increasingly larger scales without much compromise in resolution of biological complexity. In microbial ecology, our remote window into the ecology of microorganisms is through the lens of genome sequencing. For microbial organisms, recent evidence from genomes recovered from metagenomic samples corroborate a highly complex view of their metabolic diversity and other associated traits which map into high physiological complexity. Regardless, during the first decades of this omics era, microbial ecological research has primarily focused on taxa and functional genes as ecological units, favoring breadth of coverage over resolution of biological complexity manifested as physiological diversity. Recently, the rate at which provisional draft genomes are generated has increased substantially, giving new insights into ecological processes and interactions. From a genotype perspective, the wide availability of genome-centric data requires new data synthesis approaches that place organismal genomes center stage in the study of environmental roles and functional performance. Extraction of ecologically relevant traits from microbial genomes will be essential to the future of microbial ecological research. Here, we present microTrait , a computational pipeline that infers and distills ecologically relevant traits from microbial genome sequences. microTrait maps a genome sequence into a trait space, including discrete and continuous traits, as well as simple and composite. Traits are inferred from genes and pathways representing energetic, resource acquisition, and stress tolerance mechanisms, while genome-wide signatures are used to infer composite, or life history, traits of microorganisms. This approach is extensible to any microbial habitat, although we provide initial examples of this approach with reference to soil microbiomes.

Karaoz, Ulas↗
DOE OSTI2012

A Conceptual Site Model for Nature and Extent of Contamination in a Riparian-Near Shore Area - 12410

The 100-K decision area is located along the Columbia River and includes source Operable Units (OUs), a groundwater OU, and the adjacent surface water, saturated sediment and aquatic biota. A conceptual site model (CSM) has been developed to evaluate concentrations of non-radiological substances and radionuclides detected in soil, water and sediments in a riparian near-shore area along the Columbia River. The CSM is used to determine if potential transport pathways exist to these media from Hanford Site sources by incorporating information from the physical system, surface hydrology, subsurface hydrogeology, analytical results, and ecological evaluation into the model. Six contaminants of ecological concern, mostly metals and non-radiological inorganics, have been identified in riparian and near-shore media. With few exceptions (notably chromium and hexavalent chromium), there are ambient sources for these constituents in soil, sediment and water that are unrelated to the Hanford Site. While the CSM documented analytical and biological conditions, this paper presents results focused on analytical measurements to document the potential for these contaminants to be related to a release from the Hanford Site. The purpose for preparing this CSM was to address, on a reactor decision area basis, the potential for Hanford Site contaminants in soil or groundwater to migrate to riparian or near-shore areas at concentrations that could be of concern for ecological receptors. This CSM supplements the analysis of River Corridor-wide ecological risks presented in the ecological risk assessment of the RCBRA. The RCBRA identified on a site-wide basis some contaminants of ecological concern that warranted further evaluation. Based on the results of the further evaluation contained in this CSM, with the exception of hexavalent chromium, detected concentrations of contaminants in riparian or near-shore media are not reliably detectable at levels of ecological concern, or are not associated with contamination in soil or groundwater resulting from Hanford Site operations. Therefore, for purposes of alternatives evaluation in the 100-K Feasibility Study, hexavalent chromium in groundwater should be considered the only contaminants of ecological concern. There are uncertainties in this evaluation related to analytical data quality. With the exception of most recently collected analytical data in groundwater, analytical methods had MDLs that were either close to or higher than aquatic criteria; when methods with adequate detection limits are used, the results show that contaminant concentrations are less than aquatic criteria. In many cases where analytical results were higher than aquatic criteria, it was determined that the results were based on unfiltered samples. Unfiltered analytical results are inappropriate for comparison with aquatic criteria; in general, filtered analytical results were less than aquatic criteria. In some cases where concentrations were reported higher than aquatic criteria, further evaluation of the data revealed it was qualified because of the presence of blank contamination. The analytical detection limit considerations and data quality issues further support the conclusion that contaminants concentrations in water were not reliably detected above levels of ecological significance. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
NASA NTRS2022

Un-Numbered Operational Areas PRL 229 Railroad Tie Disposal Area Pond Confirmation Sampling Report

This Confirmatory Sampling (CS) Report (CSR) was prepared for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida in accordance with the CS Work Plan (CSWP) (HGL, 2022a). The CSR summarizes investigation activities performed on the Railroad Tie Disposal Area (RTDA) of the Un-Numbered Operational Areas (UNOA), Potential Release Location (PRL) 229 located at KSC. HydroGeoLogic, Inc. (HGL) prepared this report under Contract Number 80KSC019D0012. The purpose of the CSR is to provide information to evaluate the level of potential contamination in surface water and sediment samples collected from the RTDA PRL 229 Pond and determine if contaminants pose unacceptable risks to ecological receptors. The CSR provides analytical data of 10 sets of surface water and sediment samples collected in 2021. Surface water samples were analyzed for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs), metals, hardness, and salinity, while sediment samples were analyzed for metals, total organic carbon (TOC), SVOCs, PAHs, and total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH). The CSR includes a Screening Level Ecological Risk Assessment (SLERA) conducted under KSC’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Corrective Action Program to determine if unacceptable risks to ecological receptors exist at PRL 229 Pond. Metals and PAHs were detected in surface water samples, including detections of antimony, arsenic, barium, calcium, copper, lead, magnesium, thallium, zinc, anthracene, benzo(a)anthracene, benzo(a)pyrene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(g,h,i)perylene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, chrysene, dibenzo(a,h)anthracene, fluoranthene, indeno(1,2,3-c,d)pyrene and pyrene. Based on measured salinity (1.03 to 1.21 parts per thousand), the pond was identified as freshwater. Sediment analytical results also contained detections of metals and PAHs, including antimony, arsenic, barium, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, selenium, thallium, zinc, anthracene benzo(a)anthracene, benzo(a)pyrene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(g,h,i)perylene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, chrysene, dibenzo(a,h)anthracene, fluoranthene, indeno(1,2,3-c,d)pyrene and pyrene. Potential risks to ecological receptors were evaluated in accordance with the SLERA Work Plan and the Decision Process Document for the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Corrective Action Program at KSC (DPD) (Geosyntec, 2019), and using the 2021 sediment and surface water analytical results. Potential ecological receptors evaluated in the SLERA include the aquatic community, benthic invertebrates, aquatic birds, and aquatic mammals. The SLERA included Steps 2a through 2c of the Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) process in accordance with the DPD. Using multiple lines of evidence, the SLERA concluded that many of the detected analytes are present at concentrations similar to those in background or reference locations at KSC, and/or at concentrations that would not pose a significant risk to ecological communities. There are no screening values available for the avian community, and PAHs are bioaccumulative compounds. For this reason, food web modeling was completed as a supplement to Step 2c to provide a quantitative evaluation of this exposure pathway. Food web modeling indicates that PAHs are unlikely to pose a risk to birds exposed to site sediment and surface water. Based on the results of the SLERA, the contaminants in sediment and surface water pose no to minimal risk to the ecological communities that could live or forage at the site. Based on the results of the SLERA, no further study is recommended for the RTDA Pond at PRL 229.

Confirmation Sampling↗
DOE OSTI2022

Inferring plant–plant interactions using remote sensing

Rapid technological advancements and increasing data availability have improved the capacity to monitor and evaluate Earth's ecology via remote sensing. However, remote sensing is notoriously ‘blind’ to fine-scale ecological processes such as interactions among plants, which encompass a central topic in ecology. Here, we discuss how remote sensing technologies can help infer plant–plant interactions and their roles in shaping plant-based systems at individual, community and landscape levels. At each of these levels, we outline the key attributes of ecosystems that emerge as a product of plant–plant interactions and could possibly be detected by remote sensing data. We review the theoretical bases, approaches and prospects of how inference of plant–plant interactions can be assessed remotely. At the individual level, we illustrate how close-range remote sensing tools can help to infer plant–plant interactions, especially in experimental settings. At the community level, we use forests to illustrate how remotely sensed community structure can be used to infer dominant interactions as a fundamental force in shaping plant communities. At the landscape level, we highlight how remotely sensed attributes of vegetation states and spatial vegetation patterns can be used to assess the role of local plant–plant interactions in shaping landscape ecological systems. Synthesis . Remote sensing extends the domain of plant ecology to broader and finer spatial scales, assisting to scale ecological patterns and search for generic rules. Robust remote sensing approaches are likely to extend our understanding of how plant–plant interactions shape ecological processes across scales—from individuals to landscapes. Combining these approaches with theories, models, experiments, data-driven approaches and data analysis algorithms will firmly embed remote sensing techniques into ecological context and open new pathways to better understand biotic interactions.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Host phylogeny matters: Examining sources of variation in infection risk by blood parasites across a tropical montane bird community in India

Abstract Background Identifying patterns and drivers of infection risk among host communities is crucial to elucidate disease dynamics and predict infectious disease risk in wildlife populations. Blood parasites of the genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus are a diverse group of vector-borne protozoan parasites that affect bird populations globally. Despite their widespread distribution and exceptional diversity, factors underlying haemosporidian infection risk in wild bird communities remain poorly understood. While some studies have examined variation in avian haemosporidian risk, researchers have primarily focused on host ecological traits without considering host phylogenetic relationships. In this study, we employ a phylogenetically informed approach to examine the association between host ecological traits and haemosporidian infection risk in endemic bird communities in the Western Ghats Sky Islands. Methods We used parasite sequence data based on partial mitochondrial cytochrome b gene, that was amplified from genomic DNA extracted from 1177 birds (28 species) across the Western Ghats to assess infection of birds with haemosporidian parasites. We employed a Bayesian phylogenetic mixed effect modelling approach to test whether haemosporidian infection risk was affected by seven species-specific and four individual-level ecological predictors. We also examined the effect of host phylogenetic relationships on the observed patterns of variation in haemosporidian infection risk by estimating phylogenetic signal. Results Our study shows that host ecological traits and host phylogeny differentially influence infection risk by Plasmodium (generalist parasite) and Haemoproteus (specialist parasite). For Plasmodium , we found that sociality, sexual dimorphism and foraging strata were important ecological predictors. For Haemoproteus , patterns of infection risk among host species were associated with sociality, species elevation and individual body condition. Interestingly, variance in infection risk explained by host phylogeny was higher for Haemoproteus parasites compared to Plasmodium . Conclusions Our study highlights that while host ecological traits promoting parasite exposure and host susceptibility are important determinants of infection risk, host phylogeny also contributes substantially to predicting patterns of haemosporidian infection risk in multi-host communities. Importantly, infection risk is driven by joint contributions of host ecology and host phylogeny and studying these effects together could increase our ability to better understand the drivers of infection risk and predict future disease threats. Graphical abstract

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Roadmap for the future of extreme wildfire events

Background Extreme wildfire events (EWEs) represent a growing threat globally, posing substantial risks to ecosystems, human communities, and infrastructure. Despite increased recognition of their ecological, social, and economic significance, current definitions of EWEs vary widely, reflecting disciplinary biases and regional contexts. This article emerges from an interdisciplinary workshop convened to reassess and refine the definition of EWEs, examine their impacts across ecological and social dimensions, and identify critical knowledge gaps impeding our understanding of these infrequent but important events. Results Our synthesis highlights significant limitations with existing definitions, particularly their reliance on subjective thresholds and their emphasis on extreme fire behavior alone. EWEs encompass a spectrum of complex, multi-dimensional phenomena that extend beyond immediate biophysical characteristics to include cumulative social, economic, and ecological impacts. These impacts often manifest over extended timeframes and include hazardous environmental contamination, severe geomorphic disturbances, ecosystem transformations, and unintended consequences of post-fire management actions. Current wildfire modeling frameworks inadequately capture these compounding factors, particularly the interactions among social systems, ecological conditions, and extreme fire behavior. To overcome these issues, we advocate for an interdisciplinary and context-sensitive approach to defining and studying EWEs. This revised definition emphasizes wildfires exhibiting anomalies in fire behavior, ecological outcomes, or social impacts relative to historically observed baselines, accommodating variability across different geographic regions and ecological settings. Conclusions Adopting an interdisciplinary framework that integrates biophysical and social sciences will enhance the predictive capability of wildfire models and improve resilience planning and response strategies. Filling identified knowledge gaps—such as limited high-quality empirical fire behavior data and insufficient integration of social dynamics into modeling—will better prepare communities and ecosystems to cope with and adapt to EWEs. This inclusive approach underscores the necessity for collaboration across disciplines and sectors, essential to managing extreme wildfires in an era of increasing climatic and ecological uncertainty.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Climate warming enhances microbial network complexity and stability

Unravelling the relationships between network complexity and stability under changing climate is a challenging topic in theoretical ecology that remains understudied in the field of microbial ecology. Here, we examined the effects of long-term experimental warming on the complexity and stability of molecular ecological networks in grassland soil microbial communities. Warming significantly increased network complexity, including network size, connectivity, connectance, average clustering coefficient, relative modularity and number of keystone species, as compared with the ambient control. Molecular ecological networks under warming became significantly more robust, with network stability strongly correlated with network complexity, supporting the central ecological belief that complexity begets stability. Furthermore, warming significantly strengthened the relationships of network structure to community functional potentials and key ecosystem functioning. Furthermore, these results indicate that preserving microbial ‘interactions’ is critical for ecosystem management and for projecting ecological consequences of future climate warming.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Urban gray vs. urban green vs. soil protection — Development of a systemic solution to soil sealing management on the example of Germany

Managing urban soil sealing is a difficult venture due to its spatial heterogeneity and embedding in a socio-ecological system. A systemic solution is needed to tackle its spatial, ecological and social sub-systems. This study develops a guideline for urban actors to find a systemic solution to soil sealing management based on two case studies in Germany: Munich and Leipzig. Legal-planning, informal-planning, economic-fiscal, co-operative and informational responses were evaluated by indicators to proof which strategy considers the spatial complexity of urban soil sealing (systemic spatial efficiency) and, while considering spatial complexity, to assess what the key management areas for action are to reduce the ecological impacts by urban soil sealing (ecological impact efficiency) and to support an efficient implementation by urban actors (social implementation efficiency). Results suggest framing the systemic solution to soil sealing management through a cross-scale, legal-planning development strategy embedded in higher European policies. Within the socio-ecological system, the key management area for action should focus on the protection of green infrastructure being of high value for actors from the European to local scales. Further efforts are necessary to establish a systemic monitoring concept to optimize socio-ecological benefits and avoid trade-offs such as between urban infill development and urban green protection. This place-based study can be regarded as a stepping stone on how to develop systemic strategies by considering different spatial sub-targets and socio-ecological systems. - Highlights: • Urban soil sealing management is spatially complex. • The legal-planning strategy supports a systemic sealing management. • Urban green infrastructure protection should be in the management focus. • Soil protection requires policies from higher levels of government. • A systemic urban soil sealing monitoring concept is needed.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Disturbance, complexity, and succession of net ecosystem production in North America’s temperate deciduous forests

Century-old forests in the U.S. upper Midwest and Northeast power much of North Amer- ica’s terrestrial carbon (C) sink, but these forests’ production and C sequestration capacity are expected to soon decline as fast-growing early successional species die and are replaced by slower growing late successional species. But will this really happen? Here we marshal empirical data and ecological theory to argue that substantial declines in net ecosystem production (NEP) owing to reduced forest growth, or net primary production (NPP), are not imminent in regrown temperate deciduous forests over the next several decades. Forest age and production data for temperate deciduous forests, synthesized from published literature, suggest slight declines in NEP and increasing or stable NPP during middle successional stages. We revisit long-held hypotheses by EP Odum and others that suggest low-severity, high-frequency disturbances occurring in the region’s aging forests will, against intuition, maintain NEP at higher-than- expected rates by increasing ecosystem complexity, sustaining or enhancing NPP to a level that largely o sets rising C losses as heterotrophic respiration increases. This theoretical model is also supported by biological evidence and observations from the Forest Accelerated Succession Experiment in Michigan, USA. Ecosystems that experience high-severity disturbances that simplify ecosystem complexity can exhibit substantial declines in production during middle stages of succession. However, observations from these ecosystems have exerted a disproportionate in uence on assumptions regarding the trajectory and magnitude of age-related declines in forest production. We conclude that there is a wide ecological space for forests to maintain NPP and, in doing so, lessens the declines in NEP, with signi cant implications for the future of the North American carbon sink. Our intellectual frameworks for understanding forest C cycle dynamics and resilience need to catch up to our more complex and nuanced understanding of ecological succession.

ecological theory↗
DOE OSTI2017

Diatoms to human uses: linking nitrogen deposition, aquatic eutrophication, and ecosystem services

Nitrogen (N) loading to aquatic ecosystems can lead to eutrophication, changing the ecosystem within a waterbody, including primary productivity, water clarity, and food web dynamics. Nutrient loading often first affects the primary productivity of aquatic systems through shifts in phytoplankton communities. However, ecologically important changes in phytoplankton are often not relatable to the general public—whose behavior would need to change to alter patterns of nutrient loading. Therefore, we use the STressor–Ecological Production function–final ecosystem Services Framework to develop 154 chains that link changes in biological indicators of aquatic eutrophication (a shift in phytoplankton community) to final ecosystem services that people use or appreciate. We identify 13 ecological production functions (EPF) within three different ecosystems (alpine lakes, lakes, and estuaries) that connect changes in phytoplankton and algae to ecological endpoints that the general public and policy makers can appreciate. Using the Final Ecosystem Goods and Services Classification System, we identify 18 classes of human beneficiaries that potentially will be impacted by a change in one of these endpoints. We further assign strength-of-science scores to each link within the EPFs for the 154 chains according to how well each link is supported by current peer-reviewed literature. By identifying many pathways through which excess N loading in U.S. surface waters can affect ecosystems and ultimately the beneficiaries of ecosystem services, this work intends to draw attention to gaps in empirical ecological literature that constrain understanding of the magnitude of effects that excess N loading can have on human well-being. Here, results highlight the importance of intersections between the natural and social sciences when managers and policy makers evaluate impacts from ecological stressors. A balance between knowledgeable specialists proved key to applying this approach and will continue to remain important.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

CHESS 2025: Spectrometer orthorectified at-sensor radiance from NEON AOP imaging spectroscopy surveys

This dataset provides Level 1 (L1) orthorectified at-sensor radiance derived from measurements collected by the Imaging Spectrometer-1 (NIS-1) onboard the NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network) Airborne Observation Platform (AOP) for the 2025 Colorado Headwaters Ecological Spectroscopy Study (CHESS). NIS-1 captures light reflected from the Earth’s surface in 426 discrete wavelength bands as raw digital numbers (DNs; Level 0). These data are then calibrated to physical units (uW/cm²·sr·nm) following the processing steps described in the NEON Imaging Spectrometer Level 1B Calibrated Radiance Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD; Gallery 2022). The data delivered here are the primary inputs for the surface reflectance product in “Custom surface reflectance, shade masks, and equivalent water thickness maps for the Colorado Headwaters Ecological Spectroscopy Study” (Carroll et al. 2026). For intertemporal comparison, the radiance data here are most directly relatable to the v2 radiance data in “NEON AOP Imaging Spectroscopy Survey of Upper East River Colorado Watersheds: Raw-Space Radiance and Observational Variable Dataset” (Goulden et al. 2018), to which the same processing methodology was applied. Together, the radiance and reflectance data enable users to exploit the unique reflection signatures of different surface objects for land cover classification, foliar trait mapping, plant vigor assessment, water content estimation, trace-element identification, and other scientific applications. The data were acquired over three study domains in the Upper Gunnison river basin: the upper East River watershed (CRBU); Almont Triangle and Taylor Canyon (ALMO); and Upper Taylor River watershed (UPTA) between 2025-06-13 and 2025-07-15. Within each domain, data are delivered by flightline as orthorectified and calibrated hyperspectral rasters in Hierarchical Data Format version 5 (HDF5) format, with radiance values provided in uW/cm²·sr·nm on a fixed, uniform Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid at 1 meter spatial resolution. The radiance rasters include all 426 NIS-1 spectral bands, along with associated quality-assurance (QA) and diagnostic and ancillary layers needed for atmospheric correction workflows. Orthorectified radiance is produced from pushbroom spectrometer observations by applying NEON’s radiometric calibration (including bad pixel masking, dark subtract, dark pedestal shift correction, electronic panel ghost correction, grating ghost correction, deblur correction and flat-fielding) and spectral calibration (using spectral response function band centers and full-width at half-maximum intensity), followed by geolocation and regridding to the fixed grid. CHESS Project Description: The Colorado Headwaters Ecological Spectroscopy Study (CHESS) comprised a multi-week airborne remote sensing and field observation campaign in the Upper Gunnison Basin, Colorado, conducted in June and July of 2025. Airborne remote sensing was conducted by the National Ecological Observatory Network Airborne Observation Platform (NEON AOP), concurrent with a field campaign run by the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL), the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Watershed Function Science Focus Area (SFA), and NASA-JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) program. Between June 10 and July 18, 2025, the NEON AOP flight team collected high-resolution aerial imaging spectroscopy and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data over three domains: the Upper East River (CRBU), Almont Triangle (ALMO), and the Upper Taylor Basin (UPTA). In coordination with the flights, a field campaign acquired ground-truth observations, including observations of vegetation composition, foliar traits, forest demography, and subsurface properties in 18 core sampling areas within the domains. Additional surface water observations were taken at over 380 point locations. All CHESS campaign datasets can be found within the CHESS ESS-DIVE data portal: https://data.ess-dive.lbl.gov/portals/chess. Funding Acknowledgement: Field and remote-sensing data acquisition was performed under a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NSSC24K1005). This work was also supported by the Watershed Function Science Focus Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

2018 NEON and 2025 CHESS Campaigns↗
DOE OSTI2015

Benefits of less intrusive remediation alternatives; A review of case studies in Oak Ridge, Tennessee - 15482

Various alternative cleanup strategies have been utilized at Department of Energy facilities in Oak Ridge, Tennessee to avoid costly and potentially ineffective removal of contaminants in soil and sediments, transportation by truck, and long-term storage in landfills. One such example is a remedial decision in the 1990's to not conduct large-scale removal of PCB-contaminated sediments from a large downstream reservoir, and instead implement sediment disturbance controls and monitoring requirements. Monitoring results suggest the decision was a good one with PCB concentrations in fish decreasing substantially over the last 20 years, presumably due to recent cleaner sediments overlying historical sediment layers. At the East Tennessee Technology Park an innovative remediation strategy was developed to reduce human and ecological risks associated with a PCB-contaminated pond, while also enhancing the site's natural resources. Termed the 'Ecological Management and Enhancement' strategy, this remediation option provided an alternative approach to more conventional pond remediation options like sediment and soil removal, draining and capping, and point source/discharge actions. The basic premise of this option is that ecological management, including fish and wildlife management and vegetation management, can interrupt the contaminant exposure pathways that lead to ecological or human receptors. Recent monitoring results have demonstrated both risk reduction and increased natural resource value. Currently under investigation is the use of watershed management approaches that may help ameliorate mercury methylation and bioaccumulation in East Fork Poplar Creek. There is increased recognition that mercury source reduction alone will not achieve the human health risk target level in fish in the downstream environment, where water chemistry and ecological processes are conducive to mercury methylation. Additionally, significant losses in natural resource values are anticipated if major soil and sediment source removal activities are implemented. The Oak Ridge experience suggests that alternative approaches to the conventional 'muck and truck' options to sediment contamination are worth pursuing in some cases. Taking advantage of natural attenuation processes and/or implementing less intrusive water and ecological manipulations could be especially advantageous at contaminated sites where there are multiple or complex sources that are difficult to remediate, conventional source removal is costly, the contaminant of concern is highly bio-accumulative, or where natural resource values could be preserved or enhanced. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗