Research Interests

Noah Sokol is a Staff Scientist at LLNL, and the Deputy Director of LLNL’s Terraforming Soils DOE Energy Earthshot Research Center (EERC). His expertise is in terrestrial biogeochemistry, soil organic matter cycling, organo-mineral interactions, and enhanced rock weathering. Noah received his Ph.D. in ecology from Yale University, where he focused on the mechanisms of soil organic carbon formation and persistence. He joined LLNL as a Postdoctoral Researcher in 2018. 

At LLNL, Dr. Sokol’s work is broadly focused on terrestrial ecology, microbial ecology, and on the interactions between the organic carbon cycle and inorganic carbon cycle. He extensively uses isotope tracing experiments to understand the interactions between plants, the soil microbiome, and soil carbon cycling. Much of his work specifically focuses on mineral-associated organic matter – the largest and most persistent pool of carbon in soils.

Dr. Sokol is an Objective Lead of the Soil Microbiome SFA, focused on mineral-microbe-organic matter interactions. He is also an Objective Lead of the DOE EERC, as well as the Farming Carbon LDRD Strategic Initiative, where he oversees field studies and microcosm studies that study interactions between enhanced rock weathering and soil organic carbon cycling. He also leads a grant from Loam Bio on how fungal inocula influence soil organic carbon accrual; he previously led an LDRD investigating microbe-mediated effects of enhanced rock weathering on soil organic carbon.

Dr. Sokol collaborates widely with scientists at national labs and at academic institutions both within the U.S. and abroad. He also has given a range of presentations to both scientists and public audiences, and has a strong interest in multimedia science communication.

Background

2021–present, Career Staff Scientist, LLNL

2023–present, Deputy Director, DOE EERC (Terraforming Soils)

2018–present, Research Affiliate, University of California Berkeley

2018–2021, Postdoctoral Researcher, LLNL

2012-2018 NSERC Graduate Research Fellow/Teaching Fellow, Yale University

2011–2012, Environmental Communications Specialist, EcoStrategy

2009–2010, Research Assistant, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Guelph

Media Coverage

New Scientist magazine, “How one farm is testing multiple carbon-capture tricks all at once” – James Dinneen, February 2025 (https://www.newscientist.com/article/2469562-how-one-farm-is-testing-multiple-carbon-capture-tricks-all-at-once/)  

 Loam Bio-LLNL Collaboration video – January 2025 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wQR2h9n268)

Ph.D., Ecology, Yale University, 2018

B.S., Plant Biology, University of Guelph, 2009

Selected Publications

(for a complete list of publications, see Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=f-ql8Z4AAAAJ&hl=en)

King, A., Sokol, N.W. 2025. Formation of mineral-associated organic carbon is determined by existing mineral-associated soil carbon concentration and saturation deficit, not by microbial carbon-use efficiency. (accepted at Science Advances).

Sokol, N.W., Foley, M., Blazewicz, S.J., Battacharyya, A.,Estera-Molina, K., Firestone, M., Greenlon, A., Hungate, B.A., Kimbrel, J., Liquet, J., Lafler, M., Marple, M. Nico, P., Slessarev, E., Pett-Ridge, J. 2024. The path from root input to mineral-associated soil carbon is dictated by habitat-specific microbial traits and soil moisture Soil Biology and Biochemistry. doi: 10.1016/j.soilbio.2024.109367

Sokol, N.W., Sohng, J., Moreland, K., Slessarev, E., Goertzen, H., Schmidt, R., Samaddar, S., Holzer, I., Almaraz, M., Geoghegan, E., Houlton, B., Montañez, I., Pett-Ridge, J., Scow, K. 2024. Reduced accrual of mineral-associated organic matter after two years of enhanced rock weathering in cropland soils, though no net losses of soil organic carbon. Biogeochemistry Letters. doi: 10.1007/s10533-024-01160-0

Buss, W. Hasemar, H., Sokol, N.W., Rohling, E., Borevitz, J. 2024. Applying minerals to soil to drawdown atmospheric carbon dioxide through synergistic organic and inorganic pathways. Communications Earth and Environment. doi: 10.1038/s43247-024-01771-3

Jilling, A., Sokol, N.W., Morán-Rivera, A., Grandy, S. 2024. Contrasting moisture regimes influence the short-term formation of mineral-associated organic matter and its sensitivity to simulated root exudates. Geoderma. doi: 10.1016/j.geoderma.2024.116869

Chang, Y., Sokol, N.W., Van Groenigen, K.J., Bradford, M.A., Ji, D.,Crowther, T.W., Liang, C., Luo, Y., Kuzyakov, Y., Wang, J.,  Ding, F. 2024. A stoichiometric approach to estimate sources of mineral-associated soil organic matter. Global Change Biology doi: 10.1111/gcb.17092

Foley, M.M., Stone, B.W, Caro, T., Sokol, N.W., B.K., Koch, Blazewicz, S.J., Dijkstra, P., Hayer, M., Hofmockel, K., Finley, B.J., Mack, M., Marks, J., Mau, R., Monsaint-Queeney, V., Morrissey, E., Propster, J., Purcell, A., Schwartz, E., Pett-Ridge, J., Fierer, N., Hungate, B.A. 2024. Growth rate as a link between microbial diversity and soil biogeochemistry. Nature Ecology & Evolution. doi: 10.1038/s41559-024-02520-7

Whalen, E.D., Grandy, A.S., Sokol, N.W., Keiluweit, M., Ernkakovitch, E., Smith, R.G., Frey, S.D. 2022. Clarifying the evidence for microbial- and plant-derived soil organic matter, and the path towards a more quantitative understanding. Global Change Biology doi:10.1111/gcb.16413

Sokol, N.W., Whalen, E.,  Jilling, A., Kallenbach, C., Pett-Ridge, J., Georgiou, K.,  2022. Global distribution, formation, and fate of mineral-associated organic matter under a changing climate: a trait-based perspective. Functional Ecology, doi: 10.1111/1365-2435.14040

Sokol, N.W., Slessarev, E., Marschmann, G., Nicolas, A., Blazewicz, S., Brodie, E, Firestone, M., Foley, M., Hungate, B., Hestrin, R., Koch, B. Stone, B.,  Sullivan, M., Zablocki, O., Pett-Ridge, J. 2022. Life and death in the soil microbiome: how ecological processes shape biogeochemistry. Nature Reviews Microbiology, doi: 10.1038/s41579-022-00695-z

Slessarev, E., Chadwick, O., Sokol, N.W., Nuccio, E., Pett-Ridge, J. 2022. Rock weathering controls the potential for soil carbon storage at a continental scale. Biogeochemistry Letters 157: 1–13.

Sokol, N.W., Bradford, M.A. 2019. Microbial formation of stable soil carbon more efficient from belowground than aboveground input. Nature Geoscience 12: 46–53.

Sokol, N.W., Sanderman, J. Bradford, M.A. 2019. Pathways of mineral-associated soil organic matter formation: integrating the role of plant carbon source, chemistry, and point-of-entry. Global Change Biology 25: 12–24.

Sokol, N.W., Kuebbing, S.E., Karlsen-Ayala, E., Bradford, M.A. 2019.  Evidence for the primacy of living root inputs, not root or shoot litter, in forming soil organic carbon. New Phytologist 221: 233–246.

Sokol, N.W., Kuebbing S.E., Bradford M.A. 2017. Impacts of an invasive plant are fundamentally altered by a co-occurring forest disturbance. Ecology 98: 2133–2144.

• 2024, LLNL Global Security Gold Award for Roads to Removal: Options for Carbon Dioxide Removal in the United States 2022, LLNL Directorate Award for Excellence in Publication 2021, Bavaria-California Science and Technology Exchange Award                                                           2019, Soil Science Society of America, Truog Outstanding PhD Dissertation Award 2017, National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant 2016, Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant 2015, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Collaborative for Place-Based Studies Award 2015, Connecticut Association for Wetland Science, Michael Lefor PhD Research Award 2013, National Science & Engineering Research Council of Canada, Doctoral Scholarship 2013, Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies, Doctoral Pilot Study Award 2012, National Science & Engineering Research Council of Canada: Alexander Graham Bell Graduate Scholarship 2009, National Science & Engineering Research Council of Canada,  Undergraduate Student Research Award; 2004, University of Guelph, Entrance Scholarship