- Agency
- Georgia Coastal Ecosystems Long Term Ecological Program (GCE LTER)
- Location
- Sapelo Island, Georgia
- Job Category
- Internships
- Salary
- TBD
- Start Date
- 05/01/2023
- Last Date to Apply
- 03/05/2023
- Website
- https://gce-lter.marsci.uga.edu/public/employment/summer_internships_2023.asp
- Description
- The Georgia Coastal Ecosystems Long Term Ecological Research Program (GCE LTER) is recruiting for five paid summer internships in coastal ecology for summer 2023! Note that some opportunities are limited to current undergraduate students. All interns will be paid a stipend. Housing is provided on-island. Most internships last ~8 weeks between May and August, however, start and end dates are flexible based on the schedule of the intern and supervisor. Please read the position descriptions carefully as some positions have different requirements, dates, and/or locations. Follow the link for more information about the internships and to access the application. Applications are due March 5th, 2023. Root-mineral-redox interactions. Supervisor: Dr. Amanda Spivak (University of Georgia). The goal of this project is to test how soil redox conditions and mineral composition affect the fate of root exudates. The experiments will be conducted in marsh organs deployed within the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems (Sapelo Island, GA) and Plum Island Ecosystems (Rowley, MA) LTER sites. The intern will assist in maintaining and monitoring the marsh organs and with large stable isotope tracing experiments planned for the end of July and beginning of August. The intern will work closely with Dr. Amanda Spivak and a graduate student. The work includes long hours in the marsh under strenuous conditions (muddy, buggy, hot, uneven footing), lifting and carrying equipment (up to 40 lbs), hiking distances of up to 0.5 miles, and requires a high attention to detail and ability to work with a team. Lab work includes sample preparation and processing, such as bottle preparation and organic and inorganic chemical analyses (sensors, spectrophotometry). The position is based in Athens, GA for 8 weeks during June-August. Housing in Athens will not be provided, but travel to and housing at the field sites will be provided. A background in chemistry (environmental, organic, biogeochemistry, geochemistry, etc.) and experience conducting strenuous field work are preferred. This position is open to all undergraduate students, including graduating seniors. The changing roles of intertidal consumers across diverse estuarine habitats. Supervisors: Dr. Emlyn Resetarits (University of Georgia) and Dr. Shelby Ziegler (University of Georgia). The intern will help study the role of consumers across Georgia’s coastal ecosystems. They will assist with two projects. First, they will help Dr. Resetarits investigate how parasites influence the role of the keystone grazer, Ilyanassa obsoleta, on tidal mudflats. For this project, the intern will assist in field collecting, lab dissections and experimentation, and setting up field experiments. Second, the intern will assist Dr. Ziegler in examining how estuarine consumer communities change in response to marsh edge disturbance. The intern will use minnow traps to examine fish and invertebrates at varying marsh edges (active slumps, escarpments, and natural slopes) and conduct consumption assays with a standardized dried squid assay (squidpops) to evaluate changes in relative consumption at each type of edge habitat. The intern should be comfortable with hot, muddy days in the field (potentially in 3-4 feet of mud!) and have the ability to carry 40 lbs or more. The position will be on Sapelo Island, GA for ~8 weeks during May-August; housing will be provided. This position is limited to students who have not yet graduated. Field assistant in coastal science. Supervisor: GCE LTER technicians. The intern will work as a general assistant to the GCE technicians on Sapelo Island. Duties may include assisting in water quality sampling, plant and invertebrate monitoring, flux tower maintenance, helping a variety of research groups with field work, and light construction. This position will be primarily in the field, and will require strenuous physical activity and irregular hours. The position will be based on Sapelo Island, GA for ~8 weeks during May-August; housing will be provided. This position is open to all undergraduate students, including graduating seniors. Recovery from disturbance in intertidal marshes. Supervisor: Dr. Steven Pennings (University of Houston). The intern will assist with setting up and monitoring three disturbance experiments in intertidal marshes that are designed to understand factors that affect marsh recovery from disturbance. This will include sampling marsh soils, plants and invertebrates, and some laboratory work processing soil and plant samples. The intern should be comfortable with long days in the field and have the ability to carry 40 lbs or more. The position will be based on Sapelo Island for ~8 weeks during May-August; housing will be provided. This position is open to all undergraduate students, including graduating seniors. Validating remote sensing data. Supervisor: Dr. John Schalles (Creighton University). The intern will work as part of a team to perform a combination of field, laboratory, and computer workstation tasks that collectively provide “ground-truth” field survey data. We use this data to calibrate and validate remote sensing-based estimates and mapping of (1) salt marsh vegetation biomass and health, and (2) phytoplankton chlorophyll, colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM), and particulate suspended matter concentrations in estuaries and nearshore waters. The remote sensing imagery platforms for this work are GCE’s drone-collected 5 cm resolution, 5-band Altum imagery at our Dean Creek and Belle Marsh sites at Sapelo Island, VENus VM5 (France/Israel project) cube-sat daily 4 m resolution 12-band imagery, and new and archival USGS Landsat (30 m resolution) and European Space Agency Sentinel (10 m resolution) multiband imagery. Students will receive training in geospatial software for imagery acquisition, processing, and analysis (L3Harris ENVI and Pix4D Capture and Mapper), drone field operations, marsh vegetation survey techniques, and boat-based water sampling and optical measurements. The position will be based on Sapelo Island for ~8 weeks during May-August; housing will be provided. This position is open to all undergraduate students, including graduating seniors. The Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ethnicity, age, genetic information, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation or protected veteran status.
- Qualifications
- Interested applicants will apply online at the website above. A CV/resume and two references are required. Transcripts are not needed at this time. Applicants who are accepted into the program will be required to provide an official transcript for verification.
- Contact Person
- Iona Hennessy iona.hennessy@uga.edu
