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At least 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

East Tennessee Technology Park Biological Monitoring and Abatement Program 2024 Calendar Year Report

The East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) Biological Monitoring and Abatement Program (BMAP) consists of three tasks that reflect different but complementary approaches to evaluating the ecological integrity of waters near ETTP. These tasks include (1) bioaccumulation monitoring of fish and clams, (2) benthic macroinvertebrate species richness and density monitoring, and (3) fish community monitoring. The sampling and analysis requirements for the ETTP BMAP in calendar year 2024, covering in part both FY 2024 and FY 2025, are outlined in the respective FY sampling and analysis plans (UCOR 2023, 2024). Sampled water bodies and locations for the ETTP BMAP are shown in Figures 1 and 2. This ETTP BMAP report presents the CY 2024 results and provides context with results from previous years. The report also includes Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)–generated biological monitoring data collected for other US Department of Energy programs, including the UCOR Water Resources Restoration Program (WRRP) off-site fish bioaccumulation data (UCOR 2023) and select Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12) BMAP fish bioaccumulation data. Historical data collected for the ETTP BMAP and other programs in the nearby Poplar Creek and Clinch River are provided where appropriate. This progress report provides an update on the biological monitoring activities supporting the ETTP UCOR Environmental Compliance organization, which sponsors the ETTP BMAP. In addition to this internal reporting, ETTP BMAP results are provided in the annual remediation effectiveness reports and the annual site environmental reports, both of which are publicly available. BMAP data are also available to the public via the Oak Ridge Environmental Information System (https://ucor.com/oak-ridge-environmental-information-system-oreis/).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Y-12 National Security Complex Biological Monitoring and Abatement Program—2024 Calendar Year Report

This report provides the results of the CY 2024 sampling of East Fork Poplar Creek (EFPC) as part of the Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12) Biological Monitoring and Abatement Program (BMAP). The results are presented in the context of historical trends. The Y-12 BMAP was developed in 1985 to demonstrate that the effluent limits established for Y-12 protected the classified uses of the receiving stream, particularly the growth and propagation of aquatic life (Loar et al. 1989). Over the years, the BMAP has become an important and valuable long-term measure of stream conditions resulting from actions and activities at the Y-12 Complex. The BMAP currently consists of three tasks: (1) bioaccumulation monitoring, (2) benthic macroinvertebrate community monitoring, and (3) fish community monitoring. The benthic macroinvertebrate community monitoring task includes studies to evaluate the receiving stream’s biological integrity annually in comparison with Tennessee Water Quality Criteria following Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) protocols. In addition to presenting the EFPC biological monitoring results, this report includes results from Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act–funded BMAP programs in Bear Creek and McCoy Branch (presented in Appendixes A and B, respectively), as required in the Y-12 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. Additional biological testing at the Y-12 Complex includes toxicity testing of select storm drains as required in the NPDES permit. Although toxicity testing is not formally part of the BMAP, toxicity testing results from 2024 are provided in Appendix C.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

JGI Plant Transformation Workshop, May 20-21, 2025

Domestic biomass crops such as sorghum, switchgrass, Miscanthus, and poplar can provide United States industries with renewable feedstocks while also supporting low-input farming systems and strengthening supply chains for biofuels, biochemicals and biomaterials. The U.S. leads globally in biomass crop genomics, yet progress in engineering traits is constrained by slow, genotype-dependent transformation methods and lengthy Design-Build-Test-Learn (DBTL) cycles. At a May 2025 workshop, a panel of experts recommended establishing a DOE Plant Transformation Capability (PTC) to overcome these barriers. The PTC would unite two missions: advancing research to achieve genotype-independent, automated methods, and delivering scalable transformation services through a user-facility model. With expected gains of 10–100x in efficiency, including transformation and cost reduction, the PTC would accelerate the path from discovery to engineered plants, expand community access and training, and support downstream applications and workflows including field trials and regulatory navigation. By enabling rapid and predictable crop engineering, the PTC would strengthen U.S. supply chains, enhance industrial competitiveness, and ensure that DOE’s genomic investments deliver national impact.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Process Design and Techno-Economic Analysis of the Modular Staged Pressurized Oxy-Combustion (SPOC) Power Plant for Biomass

This work describes the process design and techno-economic analysis (TEA) of the modular SPOC power plant for biomass firing and coal-biomass co-firing. Two Rankine cycles were considered: a supercritical steam cycle (242 bar, 593°C, 593°C) with 550 MWe net output and a subcritical cycle (166 bar, 566°C, 566°C) with 200 MWe net output. For both cases, 95% carbon capture was modeled, and hybrid poplar biomass was chosen to generate carbon-negative power. In addition, the supercritical 500 MWe case included a 25% biomass co-firing (carbon neutral) case. For both cycles, a 100% Powder River Basin coal firing case was used for comparison purposes. In the SPOC process, oxygen is produced via a cryogenic air separation unit (ASU) and the heat generated from the compression of air is integrated into the steam cycle and utilized for boiler feed water pre-heating. Unique to the SPOC process, the boilers are pressurized and arranged in a series-parallel configuration, with minimized flue gas recirculation. The flue gas is cooled and scrubbed in the direct-contact cooler (DCC) column, and the moisture in the flue gas is condensed, leaving the bottom of the DCC at a sufficiently high temperature such that it can be used for boiler feed water pre-heating, improving plant thermal efficiency. Following drying and purification, CO2 in the flue gas is at the purity required for storage or utilization. The performance data were obtained from process modelling via Aspen Plus®. The stream data from Aspen Plus® were used as an input for the AACE Class 5 cost study. Ultimately, the capital costs, Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE), and cost of CO2 captured and avoided were obtained. The HHV efficiency of the carbon negative 550 MWe supercritical SPOC case (34.8%) was clearly above those reported by NETL for the BECCS baseline cases of supercritical pulverized coal with capture (B12B, 31.5%) and the 49% biomass co-firing case with capture (PA3, 29.2%). The HHV efficiency of the carbon-negative subcritical plant is also higher than the subcritical baseline PC plant with capture (case B11B.95) presented by NETL (32% vs 29.7%). The LCOE for the SPOC 100% biomass case was similar to the LCOE for the BECCS 49% biomass with carbon capture case ($147/MWh), and the SPOC carbon neutral case LCOE was lower ($110/MWh) than the cost for the NETL baseline SC coal firing case with 90% carbon capture ($114/MWh).

Magalhaes, Duarte↗
DOE OSTI2025

BT23 Updates for Med $70

BT23 update using the 2025 baseline and starting results in 2024 for Med $70 with updated budgets. Cost updates include: 1) Increased the nitrogen application for the following crops: willow, camelina, carinata, pennycress, and willow. 2) Removed roundup during establishment for the following crops: camelina. 3) Harvest costs were updated because the combine width was adjusted. This affected the following crops: barley, camelina, carinata, corn, oat, pennycress, rice, sorghum, soybean, and wheat. 4) Harvest cost was updated with biomass sorghum because an additional tractor was added to pull the high dump forage wagon, and the wagon width was adjusted to not constrain the harvest operation with the combine. 5) Added poplar in the ag budget database for regions 1 and 13.

agricultural crop↗
DOE OSTI2025

National summary for agricultural crops and residues, 2041

This dataset contains national summary data on agricultural crop and residue production, which include agricultural crop, agricultural residue, herbaceous energy crop, and woody energy crop. Each tab in the Excel file contains information corresponding to a resource category, and within each tab, there is a structured table presenting resource production (in dry short ton) by offered price (in USD per dry short ton) across multiple scenarios (mature-market low, mature-market medium, and mature-market high). Consistent with the 2023 Billion-Ton report for agricultural resources, these scenarios represent potential production scenarios for 2041. List of the resources shown in this dataset: - Agricultural crop: Barley, Corn, Cotton, Grain sorghum, Hay, Oats, Rice, Soybeans, Wheat - Agricultural residue: Barley straw, Corn stover, Oats straw, Sorghum stubble, Wheat straw - Herbaceous energy crop: Biomass sorghum, Energy cane, Miscanthus, Switchgrass - Woody energy crop: Eucalyptus, Pine, Poplar, Willow

agricultural crop↗
DOE OSTI2026

Agricultural crop production by county - mature-market medium scenario

This dataset contains data on agricultural crop production by county from 2022 to 2041. The agricultural crop in this dataset includes barley, biomass sorghum, corn, cotton, energy cane, eucalyptus, grain sorghum, hay, miscanthus, oats, pine, poplar, rice, soybean, switchgrass, wheat, and willow. The dataset was obtained from the database of the BT23 (Davis et al., 2024) for the mature-market medium scenario with biomass market prices from $30 to $130 per dry ton.

agricultural crop↗
DOE OSTI2024

Agricultural crop and residue production by county - mature-market medium scenario at $70

This dataset contains data on agricultural crop and residue production by county from 2022 to 2041. The agricultural crop in this dataset includes barley, biomass sorghum, corn, cotton, energy cane, eucalyptus, grain sorghum, hay, miscanthus, oats, pine, poplar, rice, soybean, switchgrass, wheat, and willow, and the agricultural residue includes barley straw, corn stover, oats straw, sorghum stubble, and wheat straw. The dataset was obtained from the database of the BT23 (Davis et al., 2024) for the mature-market medium scenario with biomass market prices of up to $70 per dry ton.

agricultural production↗
DOE OSTI2026

Populus_trichocarpa_Breeding_Population_SNPs

These data are from the manuscript “Application of Genomic Prediction in a Populus trichocarpa Breeding Program”, by Brian J. Stanton, David Macaya-Sanz, Chanaka Roshan Abeyratne, David Kainer, Kathy Haiby, Austin Himes, Carlos Gantz, Gerald A. Tuskan, and Stephen P. DiFazio. The data are based on genome resequencing to approximately 10X depth on two collections of Populus trichocarpa trees from Oregon, Washington, California, and British Columbia. The first collection consists of 293 genets collected by Poplar Innovations LLC for a breeding program. The second collection consists of 961 trees collected for the purpose of genome-wide association studies. These genets were sequenced using short, paired-end Illumina sequence reads (Chhetri et al. 2019). Reads were aligned to the P. trichocarpa ′Stettler-14′ reference (Hofmeister et al. 2020), with minor modifications to correct mis-assemblies (Zhou et al. 2020), and variants were called as per methods described in (Abeyratne et al. 2023). Identified variants were filtered using GATK’s VariantFiltration tool (DePristo et al. 2011), with filter expression flag set to “AF < 0.01 || AF > 0.99 || QD < 10.0 || ExcessHet > 20.0 || FS > 10.0 || MQ < 58.0”. SNPs with severe departures from Hardy−Weinberg expectations (exact-test p< 0.01) were also removed using vcftools --hwe flag (Danecek et al. 2011), resulting in 15,627,211 bi-allelic SNPs. The data included here consist of 141,903 high quality bi-allelic genome-wide SNPs obtained by further filtering the original SNP dataset using vcftools with flags --maf 0.05, --max-maf 0.95, --max-missing 0.95, --min-meanDP 10.75, --max-meanDP 43.00, --thin 2000. Collectively, these filtering parameters removed SNPs with 1) a minor allele frequency ≤ 0.05; 2) proportion of missing data for individual loci exceeding 5%; 3) sequencing depth more than 2X mean-depth or less than 0.5X mean-depth; or 4) a distance of

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Leaf-level physiological strategies related to productivity and plasticity of Populus in the Southeastern United States

Introduction: Populus and its hybrids are attractive bioenergy crops and the southeastern United States has broad ability to supply bioenergy markets with woody biomass. Breeding and hybridization have led to superior eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides W. Bartram ex Marshall) and hybrid poplars adapted to a wide variety of site types not suited for agricultural production. In order to maximize productivity and minimize inputs, genotypes need to efficiently use available site resources and tolerate environmental stresses. In addition, we need to determine plasticity of traits and their coordination across sites to select traits that will broadly characterize genotypes. Therefore, our study objectives were to determine (1) which leaf traits were correlated with growth, (2) if traits and genotypes exhibited significant plasticity across sites, and (3) how traits were coordinated within and across sites and Populus taxa. Methods: We measured trees at two sites in northeastern Mississippi, United States: one upland and one alluvial terrace site. Genotypes included eastern cottonwoods as well as F 1 crosses of eastern cottonwood and P. maximowiczii (Henry), P. nigra (L.) and P. trichocarpa (Torr. & Gray). Results: We found that sites differed in which leaf traits were correlated with productivity; with water use efficiency specifically being positively correlated with growth at an alluvial terrace site, but negatively correlated with growth at an upland site. Tree height growth, leaf isotope composition (δ 13 C and δ 15 N), as well as leaf mass per area (LMA) exhibited the least plasticity across sites, while physiological gas exchange parameters and leaf nitrogen concentration exhibited the highest plasticity. Broadly across taxa, leaf carbon isotope ratios were correlated with intrinsic water use efficiency, and stomatal conductance was positively correlated with photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency across sites, while leaf nitrogen isotope ratios exhibited contrasting relationships with leaf nitrogen concentration. Discussion: Overall, these results allow us to refine selections of productive genotypes based on site conditions and site-specific relationships with physiological parameters to better match Populus taxa with sites and landowner objectives.

bioenergy feedstocks↗
DOE OSTI2024

Elemental profiling and genome-wide association studies reveal genomic variants modulating ionomic composition in Populus trichocarpa leaves

The ionome represents elemental composition in plant tissues and can be an indicator of nutrient status as well as overall plant performance. Thus, identifying genetic determinants governing elemental uptake and storage is an important goal for breeding and engineering biomass feedstocks with improved performance. In this study, we coupled high-throughput ionome characterization of leaf tissues with high-resolution genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to uncover genetic loci that modulate ionomic composition in leaves of poplar ( Populus trichocarpa ). Significant agreement was observed across the three ionomic profiling platforms tested: inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), neutron activation analysis (NAA) and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Relative quantification of 20 elements using ICP-MS across a population of 584 genotypes, revealed larger variation in micro-nutrients and trace elements content than for macro-nutrients across genotypes. The GWAS performed using a set of high-density (>8.2 million) single nucleotide polymorphisms, identified over 600 loci significantly associated with variations in these mineral elements, pointing to numerous uncharacterized candidate genes. A significant enrichment for genes related to ion homeostasis and transport was observed, including several members of the cation-proton antiporters (CPA) family and MATE efflux transporters, previously reported to be critical for plant growth and fitness in other species. Our results also included a polymorphic copy of the high-affinity molybdenum transporter MOT1 found directly associated to molybdenum content. For the first time in a perennial plant, our results provide evidence of genetic control of mineral content in a model tree species.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

HAMscope: a snapshot Hyperspectral Autofluorescence Miniscope for real-time molecular imaging

We introduce HAMscope, a compact, snapshot hyperspectral autofluorescence miniscope that enables real-time, label-free molecular imaging in a wide range of biological systems. By integrating a thin polymer diffuser into a widefield miniscope, HAMscope spectrally encodes each frame and employs a probabilistic deep learning framework to reconstruct 30-channel hyperspectral stacks (452-703 nm) or directly infer molecular composition maps from single images. A scalable multi-pass U-Net architecture with transformer-based attention and per pixel uncertainty estimation enables high spatio-spectral fidelity (mean absolute error ∼0.0048) at video rates. While initially demonstrated in plant systems, including lignin, chlorophyll, and suberin imaging in intact poplar and cork tissues, the platform is readily adaptable to other applications such as neural activity mapping, metabolic profiling, and histopathology. We show that the system generalizes to out-of-distribution tissue types and supports direct molecular mapping without the need for spectral unmixing. HAMscope establishes a general framework for compact, uncertainty-aware spectral imaging that combines minimal optics with advanced deep learning, offering broad utility for real-time biochemical imaging across neuroscience, environmental monitoring, and biomedicine.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Data from: Soil carbon change in intensive agriculture after 25 years of conservation management

Changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen (SON) are strongly affected by land management, but few long-term comparative studies have surveyed changes throughout the whole soil profile. We quantified 25-year SOC and SON changes to 1 m in 10 replicate ecosystems at an Upper Midwest, USA site. We compared four annual cropping systems in maize ( Zea mays )-soybean ( Glycine max)-winter wheat ( Triticum aestivum ) rotations, each managed differently (Conventional, No-till, Reduced input, and Biologically based); in three managed perennial systems (hybrid Poplar ( Populus × euramericana ), Alfalfa ( Medicago sativa ), and Conifer ( Pinus spp.); and in three successional systems (Early, Mid- and Late succession undergoing a gradual change in species composition and structure over time).

agricultural sciences↗
NASA NTRS1973

Capability of ERTS-1 imagery to investigate geological and structural features in a sedimentary basin (Bassin Parisien, France)

A preliminary study of the MSS imagery of a sedimentary basin whose structure is regular is reported. Crops and natural vegetation are distributed all over the site located under temperate climate. Ground data available concern plant species geology and tectonic and are correlated with results from ERTS 1 imagery. This comparison shows a good correlation. The main geological units are detected or enhanced by way of agricultural land use and/or natural vegetation. Alluvial deposits are outlined by vegetation grass land and poplar trees. Some spatial relationship of geostructures, suspected until now, are identified or extended in associating results from different spectral bands.

Cavelier, C.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Forest and land inventory using ERTS imagery and aerial photography in the boreal forest region of Alberta, Canada

Satellite imagery and small-scale (1:120,000) infrared ektachrome aerial photography for the development of improved forest and land inventory techniques in the boreal forest region are presented to demonstrate spectral signatures and their application. The forest is predominately mixed, stands of white spruce and poplar, with some pure stands of black spruce, pine and large areas of poorly drained land with peat and sedge type muskegs. This work is part of coordinated program to evaluate ERTS imagery by the Canadian Forestry Service.

Kirby, C. L.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Agreste programme. Part 2: French test sites

The author has identified the following significant results. Results show that the available timber is decreasing after 1980. This comes from the corn extension program. Timber volume evaluations are given by biometrical connections between the mean surface of poplar crowns in a plantation and the mean circumference of the same trees taken at 1.30 m. LANDSAT imagery was found sufficient for large field discrimination, but small parcels like market-gardens are not discernible. Discrete operators were used to smooth, sharpen, or detect edges of digital pictures.

Flouzat, G.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Agricultural resources investigations in northern Italy and southern France, Agreste project. Part 1: Activity performed on the Italian test sites

The author has identified the following significant results. It was found that the standard atmospheric correction procedure cannot be successfully applied to water targets if a better correlation of MSS data with radiance input to LANDSAT sensors was not reached. It was confirmed that the six line effect must be avoided unless more sophisticated data handling techniques allow subtraction of various amounts of path radiance for the six satellite detectors. The COPTRAN program for atmospheric corrections of scan angle influence on atmospheric path was modified and completed. Six rice varieties were discriminated in proportions ranging from 65 percent to more than 80 percent. The same techniques were applied to poplar groves with a 70 percent precision.

Source record↗