various scenes from baruch
After a year that saw student housing empty and labs mostly quiet, the University of South Carolina’s Belle W. Baruch Institute for Coastal and Marine Sciences was buzzing again this summer, with graduate students, undergraduate interns and researchers from universities around the country working at the field lab near Georgetown, South Carolina.
Erik Smith, an associate research professor and manager of the North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, says he was so glad to be working with students again in the lab, marshes and waterways that he might have even overlooked some administrative tasks this summer.
The Baruch Marine Field Lab and associated National Estuarine Research Reserve offers students a first-hand look at a beautiful but changing ecosystem — the chance to get a taste of fieldwork and perform research projects in the on-site labs. But the work they do does more than enhance the student experience; it also helps improve our understanding and management of marine and coastal resources.
“This is an educational opportunity for the students, but they are doing real work,” Smith says. “They are contributing to the research mission of the laboratory and helping us fulfill project obligations to the national Research Reserve system."
Bill Strosnider, director of the Baruch Marine Field Laboratory, said this summer was particularly busy, with the dorms and the labs filled with resident graduate students and undergraduate interns. Along with the University of South Carolina, students came from the University of Dayton, Coastal Carolina University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Georgia College, Clemson University, St. Francis University and Horry-Georgetown Technical College.
“It’s been a nice diversity of students — from two-year colleges to Ph.D. students. The conversations get interesting with marine science, environmental science, environmental engineering, mechanical engineering and biology majors all living together,” Strosnider says.
The students were able to share experiences and expertise, working with the four on-site faculty members along with other mentors on university campuses.
“One of the big things we do, consciously, is we make sure the students here don’t just work on their project with their adviser or faculty mentor. They’re pulled about once a week into someone else’s project to lend a hand. We think it helps students grow and get a fuller experience,” Strosnider says. “They get familiar with different kinds of work, get a taste of it. So later down the line, they’ll be even better prepared.”
And this year’s students took full advantage of the resources they were offered through Baruch and the College of Arts and Science.
“They’re really interested and smart, and that's almost always the case with our interns. But I feel like we got lucky this year,” Smith says. “They are very engaged in working together and helping each other out on projects. We really hit the jackpot this summer.”
Here’s a look at five UofSC students who spent their summer living and learning on the South Carolina coast.
Kamari Boyd
As a child growing up in Columbia, Kamari Boyd’s parents weren’t big fans of cartoons on television, steering him instead to stations like Animal Planet, publications like National Geographic and to the outdoors.
“So, from a very young age, I always had an interest in the planet and photography and stuff like that,” says Boyd, a junior environmental science major.
He continued on that path this summer, when he spent his days navigating an 8-inch-wide boardwalk deep into the marshes at Baruch, shovel and bucket in hand, to take part in a global study of organic matter decomposition in salt marshes.
Boyd and his fellow researchers around the country planted “standardized” organic material — actually tea bags — throughout the high-, mid- and low-marsh. Over 90 days, they extracted those tea bags and analyzed them for carbon content and decomposition rate.
“We're still crunching numbers, but for the most part, we're trying to see if there's a correlation between tidal frequency and soil composition,” he said. “We’re doing this in order to get a better understanding of how the marsh is able to deal with decomposing matter.”
The national study is part of the examination of sea level rise. As the waters rise, the marsh adapts by accumulating soil. Understanding how tidal flooding impacts organic matter decomposition, and thus soil stability, will enable scientists to better understand how the marsh will respond to continued sea level rise.
It’s important — and relevant — work.
“The marshes are part of a lot of different things. It's a big part of the environment here. But also, economically, the marshes are home to a lot of animals that we require for seafood and commercial uses.”
And his summer gave him the chance for real-world fieldwork — in an area that has interested him for years.
“It's been a fantastic opportunity. And all the people that work here, all the undergrads and the other interns are super friendly and down to earth. It's really neat to have the ability to bounce ideas off of people who have similar interests with you, but also are doing slightly different things,” he says. “Collaboration feels natural and organic around here.”