Along shifting coastlines, scientists bring the future into focus

ORNL researchers gather and analyze data about how water, soils, plants and microbes interact.

They collect samples in biomes as varied as the coastal marshes of Louisiana , the mangrove swamps of Texas and the coastal wetlands of the Chesapeake Bay and Lake Erie .

Coastal wetlands serve as an effective barrier to absorb flooding impacts and guard against property damage.

ORNL scientist Benjamin Sulman is using a suite of biogeochemical and other models to scale these processes and integrate them into the larger DOE Energy Exascale Earth System Model .

He's leading efforts to connect simulations of redox chemistry, tidal hydrology and coastal wetland plant functional types such as salt marsh grasses and mangroves into land model simulations at ecosystem to continental scales.

The scientists integrated complex biogeochemical processes into the Earth Land Model .

They simulated interactions between sulfur, iron and carbon cycling and how they respond to salinity.

By including more frequent observations associated with tides and photosynthesis, the team found they can more clearly analyze changes that significantly influence soil nutrient cycling.