Summer Internships

Under the auspices of a variety of educational programs, summer undergraduate interns are contributing to ongoing research projects at both Howland and Harvard Forests. Harvard Forest. Students participating in the Harvard Forest Summer Research Program in Ecology work with us making weekly measurements of soil respiration, temperature, moisture, and CO2 profile concentrations. They are also required to analyze these data and archive them in a database.

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Picture 1: Summer intern Linda Wan (2001) measures soil gas flux.

In addition, students are encouraged to design a research project of their own which are presented at the end of the summer term. Past projects have included soil respiration and its relationship to soil moisture, nitrogen effects on respiration rates, sources of error in our soil respiration measurement system and methane consumption and moisture content.
   Summer interns at Howland Forest learn about and contribute to ongoing field measurement programs, including weekly measurement of soil respiration and other soil properties and measuring how fertilizer nitrogen moves through the forests. These interns have been funded through the DOE-SURE program . The interns also develop and carry out independent research projects. Past projects examined respiration rates of dead wood, the effects of nitrogen on leaf litter decay, and the fate of added nitrogen in different soil horizons.

Summer Intern samples dead wood
Picture 2: Summer intern Heidi Ochsner sampling dead wood at Howland Forest.