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INSTAAR Summer Scholars share research plans

INSTAAR Summer Scholars share research plans

INSTAAR鈥檚 first cohort of Summer Scholars has been announced. S谩de Cromratie Clemons and Christina Geller will each be awarded a stipend for the summer months to continue their research projects.

The diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) summer scholarships are designed to increase support for students from communities that are historically marginalized in the Earth sciences, and to be concrete commitments toward INSTAAR鈥檚 mission of becoming an inclusive and anti-racist institute.

The scholars took the time to answer a few questions about their research and summer plans.

 

S谩de Clemons (GEOG) will investigate how floods impact forests, and how those impacts play into the carbon cycle

Sade Clemons extracts a core from a tree

What will you be working on this summer?

鈥淢y project focuses on tree response to the 2013 Front Range flood. I look at water use efficiency and wood sourcing using carbon and oxygen isotopes.鈥

Clemons鈥 samples come from logjams built by the flood. 鈥淚鈥檝e dated all my tree rings already,鈥 she says, 鈥渂ut I鈥檒l be checking that. Then I鈥檒l be cutting them up by each year and extracting cellulose to take back to the lab for isotope analysis.鈥

Because the environmental conditions of a tree in are recorded in the isotope values of its wood, isotopic analysis can pinpoint how high the tree grew on the mountain slope before it was swept down and into the logjam by the flood. Clemons wants to know, 鈥淲here has the wood come from? Riparian areas, or more upslope?鈥

Clemons鈥 research will fill in the picture of how floods can affect carbon exchanges in forested areas. 鈥淚t鈥檚 cool to see how this flood has affected this forest, but also how it鈥檚 affected the carbon cycle,鈥 she says. 鈥淗ow much did each area contribute to the carbon cycle?鈥

What will the scholarship enable you to do?

鈥淚t definitely helps me when it comes to having samples processed鈥攖hat costs money. Also it will help me get some lab and field equipment. I could also use the money for conferences.鈥

What do you like to do when you鈥檙e not sciencing?

鈥淚 originally hadn鈥檛 hiked at all before coming to Colorado. I鈥檝e done a lot more hiking than I鈥檝e ever done in my life!鈥

 

Tina Geller (ATOC) is interested in how Arctic estuaries respond to thawing permafrost, with consequences for Arctic ecosystems and food webs

Tina Geller

What will you be working on this summer?

鈥淚 work with Dr. Julia Moriarty, and I鈥檓 implementing a model to look at water circulation, and eventually biogeochemistry, in an Arctic lagoon.鈥

鈥淓stuaries in general usually have really high productivity, and that means changes in the water can affect food webs and so on. I鈥檓 specifically interested in permafrost, and how nutrients released by permafrost thaw can affect the local system. But we don鈥檛 know a lot yet about how the water is moving to start to look at that and what鈥檚 influencing that.鈥

鈥淭his summer I鈥檓 really excited because I鈥檓 working on finishing up implementing the model, validating it, and starting to look at a few results.鈥

What will the scholarship enable you to do?

鈥淏eing able to focus on research is great, and the scholarship allows me to do that. But also having the mentality of thinking about [diversity, equity, and inclusion] initiatives on the daily and how I can bring DEI into my research through the interactions I鈥檓 going to have this summer with INSTAAR researchers.鈥

What do you like to do when you鈥檙e not sciencing?

鈥淚t鈥檚 very different than the usual 麻豆影院ite. I enjoy video games and doing puzzles. I almost feel like my research is like putting puzzle pieces together to see how they fit into the collective, so there鈥檚 a connection there. I鈥檓 a huge movie person.鈥