UTC junior Rebecca Nix spent her summer participating in an REU through the Louisiana University Marine Consortium. Photo courtesy of Rebecca Nix.
For several University of Tennessee at Chattanooga students, the past summer provided an opportunity to delve deeper into research and further explore their academic interests.
Students were able to conduct applicable research, consult with faculty, work in a lab environment and bond with fellow students in the same field.
These opportunities are made possible through the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, which provides funding for students to conduct research projects at universities nationwide.
===================================================
Click here to read other UTC REU stories.
===================================================
Rebecca Nix is a geology major with a concentration in geospatial science. The Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, native spent her summer in Cocodrie, Louisiana, forecasting the effects of increased salinity and edge erosion on soil organic carbon stability in a mangrove encroachment front.
The junior’s REU experience was available through the Louisiana University Marine Consortium (LUMCON).
Dr. Amy Brock-Hon, associate department head and Robert L. Wilson Professor of Geology, said that these opportunities are incredible chances for undergraduates to gain real research experience.
“We have a phrase in geology, ‘The person who sees the most rocks wins,’” she said. “You can only see and learn so much from around Chattanooga. When you go and experience new and different places, you’re adding to your experiences and you’re adding to your ability to process and understand the entire world.
“It makes you a better scientist. It makes you a better human.”
Nix explained her research further.
How did you find out about this REU?
“I wanted to do something in wetland science. I just had an inkling. I really wanted to travel to Louisiana. On the NSF website, I was looking up coastal internships, Louisiana internships, and this one was the Goldilocks (option). I applied to this one. It was a very spur-of-the-moment decision. I didn’t really expect anything to happen. I applied for it on the last day.”
Can you explain your research?
“I worked in the biogeochemistry lab with Dr. Havalend Steinmuller. She focuses on blue carbon storage along the coast. My project specifically was to increase the effects of climate change by increasing salinity and edge erosion on salt marsh soils and how it affects the organic carbon stability in the ground.
“I went out to a barrier island on the coast and we collected soil cores. Then we analyzed those soil cores over the span of 10 days. We applied different treatments of increased salinity and oxygen, and then we did some gas chromatography to measure the carbon dioxide levels. Then you analyze the data and find everything.”
How was Louisiana in the summer?
“I fell in love with both the chemistry aspect and the actual Louisiana Coastal Master Plan. In the internship, we got to do more than just my project. We got to meet locals. We got to learn about the fishing industry and how coastal Louisiana affects both the environment and the people there. The culture affects everything they do, like how a new flood can completely impact a year’s worth of a fisherman’s salary.
“I had no idea that it was a big web of things that I was doing and how my research was implemented in all of it. I fell in love with the coast at that moment while I was down there. Now I want to go back.”
What did a typical day look like for you?
“You would spend all day looking at one Excel-sheet formula trying to get it right, or you would spend all day grinding dirt or putting dirt in the oven—a lot of mud, a lot of dirt.
“I was able to go with (Steinmuller) and some other scientists from LSU on a five-day-long excursion on a research vessel out into the Gulf. I was able to do some of the gas chromatography analysis on a ship for five days in the middle of the ocean. It was a unique experience.”
How did your REU align with you academically and professionally?
“I always wanted to move further south and work on the coast. I’m a geology major and I’ve always had an inclination for wetlands. That’s what inspired me to go. I hadn’t done any soil science in my life, and this was my first time diving into that. It was heavily chemistry and soil-based. It made me really fall in love with that aspect. Seeing the perspective of science, that’s going to happen, and it’s going to continue to happen down there—it’s never going away. That area of research, whether it’s sediment diversion, geochemistry in that area of wetlands and salt marshes, is ever-growing.
“That really made me want to focus my education around something like that. I really want to focus on coastal river science and sedimentology when I go to grad school. It’s made me more driven to get into grad school.
“It’s supplied me with a huge network of people that I can reach out to for further information, mentorships, guidance and recommendation letters. I truly learned the value of networking.”
What does it mean to have a research experience like this as an undergraduate student?
“It has catapulted me into a realm of looking at things differently with my scientific career itself and also in the classroom. Seeing how these classroom topics apply directly to the field has made me understand and appreciate a lot more of the lecturing I’ve been receiving. It’s so much more applicable in the classroom now that I can think about this and how they would do this in the lab or in professional science.”
Learn more
Rebecca Nix collecting soil samples during fieldwork in Cocodrie, Louisiana. Photo courtesy of Rebecca Nix.
