Faces of SRAP: Blandon Su, Emily Oaxaca, and Kim Barrios

The Summer Research Apprentice Program has officially come to a close, but we will still be featuring a few SRAP participants on our blog! Stay tuned!

Blandon Su, Emily Oaxaca and Kim Barrios have spent their time at SRAP studying in the Ecosystem Science and Management department with professors Ginger Paige and Scott Miller.

“They got an introduction into a whole bunch of field hydrology and geophysics the first week,” said Dr. Paige. “They were in the field a lot.”

Emily (left), Blandon (middle), and Kimberly Barrios (right)
conduct field research

After their time in the field, Blandon, Emily and Kim each came up with a different research project to complete.

Blandon, a junior from Chicago, Illinois chose to study a stream, saying “My project is investigating a stream at Blair-Wallis. It’s funny, because one day, there’s a lot of water in the stream, and the day after, it’s starting to lose water, so my project is really open-ended.”

Understanding how water gets to the stream, and where it goes when it leaves the stream is a question that has long puzzled scientists.

“The great part about Blandon’s project is that it’s one of those hydrologic conundrums where we have to look at multiple avenues of investigation to figure out what’s going on,” Dr. Paige explained. “One approach doesn’t necessarily give you the right answer, you have to do this multiple times and figure out the complexities of what’s going on within the system.”

Emily, a junior from Denver, Colorado is working on a project that includes her fellow SRAP participants.

“I’m going to interview my fellow SRAP students about their thoughts and opinions on climate change,” she says. “I want to learn if it depends on gender, or age, or other factors.”

Emily hopes to become a better researcher in her time at SRAP, and wants to understand how different factors can influence people’s perceptions.

“I want to learn how to ask the right questions,” she says. “I hope to learn how to get better at talking to people.”

Kim, a recent high school graduate from Rawlins, Wyoming chose to examine rainfall and soil moisture.

“I’m measuring soil moisture and rainfall,” she says. “I’m also comparing different types of rain gauges and moisture sensors, to see which ones are more appropriate for different uses.”

Kim’s research will help WyCEHG scientists better understand the capabilities and limitations of the equipment they use.

Kim has decided to attend the University of Wyoming in the fall to pursue a degree in Architectural Engineering. Both Blandon and Emily plan to attend college after they graduate from high school, although neither has decided what they would like to study.

SRAP is a six-week, intensive research program for high school students. It is based at the University of Wyoming and is sponsored by Wyoming EPSCoR. For more information about the program, click here, or search “SRAP” in the archives.

By Robin Rasmussen
Photo courtesy of Dr. Ginger Paige

SRAP Student Spotlight: Griffin and Mapping Regional Isotopes

SRAPer: Griffin Gilmore
Home State: California
Grade in School: Senior
Plans after high school: Attend Air force Academy, if possible, and major in either astrophysics or astronomy

 

Griffin takes down field notes

Energy and curiosity are key ingredients when it comes to being a scientist and Griffin Gilmore has plenty of both. While the planning stages of a project often lack the excitement of the implementation stage, Griffin is enthusiastic about all aspect of his project, planning included. He knows exactly what he wants to accomplish and how to reach that goal.

“My SRAP project is about taking samples of isotopes from the Laramie River and Crow Creek watershed,” Griffin explains. “Then, from those samples, we can make an isoscape, which is a map of the isotopes within a region so that we better understand how water flows throughout the area.”

This project is part of the larger WyCEHG project, focused on understanding Wyoming water systems. Griffin’s work will contribute to the knowledge WyCEHG is working towards and plays an important role in understanding the relationship between ground water, sub-surface water and precipitation.

Griffin is working with Dr. Scott Miller, a spatial processes hydrologist at the University of Wyoming and co-principal investigator for WyCEHG. Dr. Miller is enthusiastic about the project, because it is centered on a new way of approaching water science.

“Griffin is working on an emerging kind of water science at UW,” says Dr. Miller. “His research is the first attempt at using isotopes to understand how water changes downriver in these systems. Griffin has come up with a very clever project and his research will be beneficial to the WyCEHG project. It’s terrific to have a high school student contribute to fundamental science.”

While Griffin is still getting everything ready and preparing for several days of field work, he is most looking forward to the analysis process in the Stable Isotope Lab.

Griffin takes a measurement at one WyCEHG site

“I’m really going to enjoy the in-lab work,” Griffin says. “I like anything about chemistry, isotopes included.”

In addition to chemistry, Griffin likes physics and astronomy.

“Ever since a young age I’ve been fascinated with astronomy and there’s a lot of physics within astronomy,” Griffin says.

Griffin’s love of astronomy and physics is what makes the Air force Academy appealing with its strong astrophysics program. No matter where he decides to go for college, however, Griffin is ready for starting a career in science.

“I think SRAP is a great opportunity,” Griffin says. “It’s great for college and great for getting experience in the science fields.”

 
SRAP is a six-week intensive research program based at the University of Wyoming and sponsored by Wyoming EPSCoR.
By  Kali S. McCrackin
Photos by Robin E. Rasmussen and Kali S. McCrackin
 

World experience and work in Wyoming: The global importance of watershed management

This story is the second of several stories featuring EPSCoR personnel and their roles in merging science, education, research and outreach. Dr. Scott Miller is a principal-investigator on one of two EPSCoR grants. This story focuses on that grant and Dr. Miller's work.

Dr. Scott Miller and one of his graduate students.

Dr. Scott Miller was thirteen years old when he first experienced the consequences of poor land management. His parents sent him to Nepal on a backpacking trip, and one day he came across a village that had just been devastated by a landslide. It was monsoon season and the slope failure was due to deforestation. The village had been chopping down the forest to free the land for agricultural use.

“It was very striking to see the connection between forest management and severe consequences to people, including loss of life,” Dr. Miller says.

Dr. Miller’s experience in Nepal urged him to pursue an undergraduate degree in geological sciences. A few years after college he returned to Nepal to work on a dam project, but quickly realized that he needed more technical training, which led him to the field of watershed management. Today, Dr. Miller is a watershed hydrologist at the University of Wyoming.

“The fascinating thing about hydrology and water management is that we are always in a state of flux,” Dr. Miller says. “And, humans are intimately connected to water.”

The connection between humans and water is one of the major driving forces behind the $20 million EPSCoR WyCEHG (Wyoming Center for Environmental Hydrology and Geophysics) grant, on which Dr. Miller is a co-Principal Investigator with Dr. Steve Holbrook.

“What happens in Wyoming affects a huge number of people that are outside of Wyoming,” Dr. Miller says.

Wyoming is the headwater state for many western states. Good water management is absolutely essential because so many people and such a large ecosystem downstream depend on it. Understanding water in Wyoming is also important because there is a high degree of variability in the climate which dictates how and where water comes from.

“From a hydrological perspective, it is really quite fascinating to work in Wyoming,” Dr. Miller says. “The vast majority of our moisture that drives water in rivers and streams occurs at very high elevations. All of our downstream rivers are dependent on what happens up in the mountains. So, it is a really interesting place to work because of the significant changes in climate and hydrology as you travel from the plains up to the headwaters.”

So far, all of the research sites for the WyCEHG grant are located in mountains throughout the state. This setting is an ideal place for someone like Dr. Miller to conduct research because it is constantly challenging.

“I like being surprised by observations in the field or outcomes from models that I didn’t expect,” Dr. Miller says. “It is very stimulating to tackle something that is not really well understood.”

The water system in Wyoming is one area that fits this description, especially in terms of in-depth understanding because of the high variability. As a Watershed Hydrologist, Dr. Miller will be using his expertise to look at how water is moving through the geologic systems of the mountains and how altering surface processes change water movement.

“There are a variety of disciplinary ways to tackle water,” Dr. Miller says. “In my field usually what we do is go out and put instruments in rivers, measure the flow of water through rivers at various places, look at how much rainfall or snow is coming in, understand the meteorological signals and then measure things like soil moisture and ground water depth. Even with this approach we are still left with an incomplete picture of how water moves through a system because of the heterogeneity of the subsurface.”

To create a more complete picture of hydrological systems, watershed hydrologists build models which represent the actual processes occurring in nature. These models give scientists a spatial perspective of water movement, but they too are incomplete. The best way to create a complete picture is through interdisciplinary work across fields. Watershed hydrology, geophysics, plant ecology and various other fields contribute important information to water research.

“I feel, and this is the purpose of the grant, that by integrating all these different disciplines we will do a better job of getting a fuller portrait of how hydrological systems work,” Dr. Miller says. “The opportunity to have a significant impact is greater when you work in a team. It’s worth the effort to overcome the barriers to interdisciplinary work.”

The importance of interdisciplinary collaboration is an experience Dr. Miller learned and took to heart during a project in Kenya. The project was based on interaction between scientists and stakeholders, and relied on positive collaboration in order to benefit the community in which they were working.

“The place I evolved most rapidly as a scientist was when I was working in Kenya because of the cultural challenges, the positive outcomes of working across cultures and the high relevance of the research,” Dr. Miller says. “I advanced a lot, both as a scientist and as a human being.”

The research funding in Kenya was directed towards impacting people’s lives and livelihoods, which forced the scientists to focus on the most relevant aspects of water in order to help the local people. This emphasis on relevancy is mirrored in the WyCEHG grant, which will help inform water managers in order to help the people dependent on Wyoming’s water.

“We will hopefully be able to provide a better scientific framework for understanding what to expect in the next several years regarding water, which will allow for more appropriate planning,” Dr. Miller says. “If we can improve scientific understanding, we can improve decisions.”

By Kali McCrackin
Photo courtesy of the University of Wyoming