Among the thousands of internships offered to undergraduate students, Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) are some of the most selective. Only students with previous internship experience and a GPA higher than 3.25 qualify, and from that competitive pool, only 10 to 15 students from across the country are chosen for each site.
The REU program’s goal is to support active research participation by undergraduate students in the areas of research funded by the National Science Foundation. There are more than 20 different sites, each one hosting a group of undergraduates who work in the research programs of their host institution. Every student is associated with a specific research project, where he or she works closely with the faculty and other researchers. Students are granted $4,000 stipends and, in many cases, assistance with housing and travel.
This past summer, two of our own AGNR seniors were accepted into the REU program. Environmental Restoration and Management major Sara Mack was sent to the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, and Wildlife Ecology & Management major Micah Miles spent his summer conducting research at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and the University of Maryland.
In Louisiana, Mack investigated iron nutrient cycling rates in soils of different plant types at sites impacted and un-impacted by the BP oil spill. Her project played a role in a larger goal to understand all of the various types of nutrient cycling processes in the surface soils of Louisiana marshes, and to investigate any changes that may have arisen from the BP oiling.
“Understanding these types of nutrient processes and BP spill impacts in the soils is both useful and important for many reasons,” Mack says. “By looking at the different rates of iron cycling, we can better understand how Louisiana salt marsh and mangrove ecosystems contribute to global climate change.”
By investigating and comparing nutrient cycling processes between both oiled and un-oiled BP spill sites, she explains, we can better understand the everlasting impacts that the BP spill may have had on the ecosystems, as well as the resiliency of the ecosystems to rebound from the spill.
Back in Maryland, Miles worked with a graduate student studying pollinators and pollination of the black mangrove – a unique tree specially adapted to grow in submerged or partially submerged salt or freshwater.
“Everyday we would drive out to these mangrove forests and record the types of pollinators, such as bees, wasps, butterflies, and other insects, that visited the flowers on the black mangrove,” Miles says.
The goal of his research was to better understand the pollination ecology of black mangroves and investigate how recent changes in climate have affected the pollination ecology of this species. “I also had the amazing opportunity to organize my own independent project, and I developed an experiment where I excluded anoles, a group of small lizards that feed primarily on insects, from black mangrove trees in an effort to understand how they impact insect herbivory on the trees,” Miles says. “I later presented my data at a Meeting of the Delaware/Maryland chapter of the Wildlife Society.”
The two internships proved to be meaningful experiences for Mack and Miles, and the pair ended their summers with a better idea of their goals for the future.
For Mack, the experience solidified her interest in studying soils after college. After graduation, she hopes to work for a government agency, studying wetland soils like those she researched in Louisiana.
“This research experience was incredibly meaningful to me,” she says. “I got to work with and learn from some of the greatest people who really knew their stuff about soils and wetlands and genuinely enjoyed the work they were doing. And most importantly, I was able to be a part of a project that may bring about more environmental protection and preservation in an area that is in great need of attention and repair.”
Miles’ internship reaffirmed his interest in wildlife research, and established a baseline for forming his own interests within ecology and wildlife management. While he doesn’t plan to continue working with insects and pollinators, the experience introduced him to fieldwork and the process of conducting one’s own research.
For those interested in an REU experience, the program is open to rising seniors of all majors who have prior research or internship experience. Application deadlines are between February 1 and March 15, depending on the host institution. For more information about REU internships, click here.
