USDA Forest Service Office/Lab and Location: A fellowship opportunity is available with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service (FS) within the Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSWRS) located in Sacramento, California.
At the heart of the USDA Forest Service's mission is their purpose. Everything they do is intended to help sustain forests and grasslands for present and future generations. Why? Because their stewardship work supports nature in sustaining life. This is the purpose that drives the agency’s mission and motivates their work across the agency. It’s been there from the agency’s very beginning, and it still drives them. To advance the mission and serve their purpose, the USDA Forest Service balances the short and long-term needs of people and nature by: working in collaboration with communities and our partners; providing access to resources and experiences that promote economic, ecological, and social vitality; connecting people to the land and one another; and delivering world-class science, technology and land management.
Research Project: Through the mentorship by Forest Service technical staff and project leads, summer research fellows will participate in an immersive field and laboratory experience investigating watershed and subsurface responses to environmental disturbances. Fellows will practice a variety of data collection, monitoring, and analysis techniques by collaborating on one or more of the following interconnected research tracks:
- Post-Fire Hydrology and Debris Flow Hazard: Fellows will collaborate with researchers to collect and analyze field data related to post-fire runoff and sediment transport. Activities include helping with stream gauge measurements, evaluating topographic and geomorphic changes, and analyzing debris flow initiation mechanisms in recently burned catchments.
- Post-Fire and Drought Soil and Weathered Bedrock Carbon Storage: Fellows will research the impacts of fire and drought on carbon cycling by helping in the collection of soil and weathered bedrock samples. Under mentorship, they will practice sampling gas wells and prepare samples for laboratory analysis to evaluate carbon storage and respiration rates within the root zone.
- Post-Fire Geochemical and Microbiological Vadose Zone Processes: Fellows will collaborate on assessing biogeochemical alterations following wildfires. Activities involve collecting and analyzing water, soil, and bedrock samples to observe microbial community shifts and geochemical fluxes within the vadose and groundwater zones.