Tuesday, August 7, 2018
244, New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
Kenneth M. Kemner1, Sarah O'Brien2, Matthew D. Whiteside3, Deirdre Sholto-Douglas4, Olga Antipova5, Doga Gursoy4, Alice Dohnalkova6, Libor Kovarik7, Dan M. Durall8, Barry Lai9, Melanie D. Jones10, Christian Roehrig4 and Stefan Vogt4, (1)Biosciences Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, (2)Universityi of Illinois, Chicago, (3)Department of Ecological Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands, (4)Argonne National Laboratory, (5)Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, (6)Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, (7)Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, (8)Biology and Physical Geography, University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, BC, Canada, (9)X-Ray Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, (10)Biology, University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus, Kelowna, BC, Canada
Because soil is opaque to visible light, it is very difficult to image the internal three-dimensional pore and microbial structure of soil aggregates. The high energy and highly brilliant x-rays provided by a third generation synchrotron like the Advanced Photon Source, coupled with creative ways of introducing tags to microbes, will enable routine three-dimensional imaging of minerals, organic matter (plant roots and microbes), and pore structure within soil aggregates. I will describe how a synchrotron works, how it enables imaging of internal soil structure, and how creative introduction of tagged bacteria will enable the imaging of biota within soils.
