A demonstration project in Australia has helped to verify that depleted natural gas reservoirs can be used for geologic carbon sequestration, a climate change mitigation strategy that involves pumping CO2 deep underground for permanent storage. The project also demonstrated that depleted gas fields have enough storage capacity to make a significant contribution to reducing global emissions.

What will a day in the life of a Californian be like in 40 years? If the state cuts its greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 — a target mandated by a state executive order — a person could wake up in a net-zero energy home, commute to work in a battery-powered car, work in an office with smart windows, then return home and plug in her car to a carbon-free grid. A new study outlines how to get there.

Researchers from the Joint Genome Institute, Berkeley Lab, and the U.S. Geological Survey collaborated to understand how microbes found in permafrost respond to their warming environment. Among the findings, published online November 6 in the journal Nature, is the draft genome of a novel microbe that produces methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

The quest to reduce carbon emissions is coming to Big Sky country. Berkeley Lab scientists are part of an effort to determine whether a large fraction of Montana’s and nearby states’ CO2 emissions can be stored deep underground — where it can’t contribute to climate change. The project will require extensive modeling, monitoring and lab analyses, which is where Berkeley Lab’s expertise comes in.

Globally, soils store three times as much carbon as there is in the atmosphere or in living plants. Scientists don’t know what will happen to this carbon in response to climate change. An international group of scientists has proposed a new approach to soil carbon research that seeks answers. Their roadmap is published in the October 6 issue of the journal Nature and is co-authored by Berkeley Lab soil scientist Margaret Torn.

Last month, scientists from Berkeley Lab and several other U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories traveled to two small Alaskan towns — tiny dots amid the vastness of the tundra, and perfect places to observe Earth at a crossroads. The scientists are developing The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiment, a multidisciplinary effort to answer one of the most urgent questions facing researchers today: How will a changing climate affect the Arctic, and how will this in turn affect the planet’s climate?

Billions of tons of carbon trapped in permafrost may be released into the atmosphere by the end of this century as the Earth’s climate changes, further accelerating global warming, a new computer modeling study led by a Berkeley Lab scientist indicates. The study also found that soil in high-latitude regions could shift from being a sink to a source of carbon dioxide by the end of the 21st century as the soil warms in response to climate change.

A team led by Berkeley Lab scientists hopes to become the first in the world to produce electricity from the Earth’s heat using CO2. They also want to permanently store some of the CO2 underground. The technology could lead to a new source of clean, domestic energy and a new way to fight climate change.

A handful of muck or a bucket of water can teem with millions of microorganisms — a few of which could be the next big thing when it comes to learning how to create biofuels or understanding the planet’s carbon cycle. Exploring the microbial world is getting easier thanks to one of the world’s largest databases of genetic “fingerprints” maintained by Berkeley Lab scientists.

From the planet’s core to its surface, heat enables Earth’s magnetic field, spreads the sea floor, and keeps continents on the move. Much of the heat is “radiogenic,” from the radioactive decay of elements in the crust and mantle, but how much? By measuring neutrinos from deep in the Earth, Berkeley Lab scientists and their colleagues at Japan’s KamLAND neutrino detector have published the most precise estimate yet of radiogenic heat.