The following NOAA Experiential Research and Training Opportunities (NERTO) have been approved and are accepting applications:
There are new projects for potential NOAA EPP/MSI NERTO graduate internships across the CSC-supported student community:
Project title: A Comparative Metagenomics Study on the Tijuana River and Salinas Valley, CA
Hypothesis or objectives:
The global demand for agriculture products has been increasing every year, leading to a focus on reducing crop loss with the use of pesticides. This increased use of pesticides has caused widespread environmental pollution as well as human health risks to surrounding agricultural communities. The presence of pesticides within coastal environments has also been found to have greater risks to environmental processes and species. One method being used by scientists to effectively reduce pesticides is bioremediation. Bioremediation involves using microorganisms to decrease or detoxify environmental contaminants to non-toxic levels. In order to contribute to the advancement of this research, a “bioreactor” system will studied to understand the changes in the community structure of bacteria and their functional components. These changes will also be compared to microbial communities in other historically contaminated environments to understand the potential of natural remediation. We anticipate the potential of natural soils to remediate pesticides to be low compared to soils in the bioreactor because of the increased disruption in both ecosystems by pesticides and other pollutants like sewage overflow.
Estimated start – end date:
May 2022 – August 2022
Project title: An Economic Valuation of a Multi-Seasonal Atmospheric River Frequency Forecast for the Western United States (for CSC Student)
Hypothesis or objectives:
Atmospheric rivers are narrow filaments of concentrated moisture in the atmosphere that bring heavy precipitation and flooding. Atmospheric rivers are especially impactful along the western coast
of the United States where they are estimated to account for about 30% of the annual precipitation. Current forecast products used to predict atmospheric rivers focus on the subseasonal to seasonal
timescale. A new model out of NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) shows potential in predicting atmospheric river frequency on a multi-seasonal timescale. The objective of this project is to determine the economic and societal benefits associated with the investments in the development of a seasonal to multi-seasonal forecast of atmospheric river frequency
Estimated start – end date:
May 2022 – July 2022
Project title: Moisture variability in extreme precipitation events in northeast Colorado as simulated by the GFDL SHiELD model (for CSC Student)
Hypothesis or objectives:
This application is for 1 graduate student to work 3 months from May 23rd to August 12th 2022 at OAR/GFDL. This project will analyze the role of moisture variability in summertime heavy precipitation events in northeast Colorado using the GFDL System for High-resolution prediction on Earth-to-Local Domains (SHiELD) model. The analysis will be on the vertical distribution and diurnal variability of moisture and their interactions with the available dynamic forcing and thermodynamic instability within a range of spatial scales, from the convective- to synoptic-scale. Two goals to be achieved: 1) to simplify the complexity of multi-scale interactions by identifying key ingredients and processes that are common to the observed heavy precipitation events. 2) to assess the representation of the simulated fields in the SHiELD model by comparing them to radar, lidar, and radiosonde observations taken during the recent NSF Preparatory Rockies Experiment for the Campaign in the Pacific (“PRE”-CIP). These comparisons will be vital for improving the SHiELD model performance across a variety of weather phenomena.
Estimated start – end date:
May 2022 – August 2022
Project title: NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer 2022 Mapping Internship for CSC-supported Graduate and Undergraduate Students Opportunities for April – Sept., 2022
Hypothesis or objectives:
To provide the opportunity for two CSC-supported students to gain hands-on experience using an advanced multibeam bathymetric sonar mapping system, while contributing in a significant way to the Okeanos Explorer ocean exploration mission. mission. This opportunity is open to enrolled CSC-supported undergraduate and graduate students.
Internship Duration: 3 – 4 weeks Multiple expeditions taking place between April 2022 – and September 2022.
Estimated start – end date:
April 2022 – September 2022
Previously Approved Projects:
Project title: NOAA EPP/MSI Research and Training Opportunity with NOAA Office of Legislative Affairs and NOAA’s House of Representatives Congressional Authorizations Committees
Hypothesis or objectives:
To learn how the legislative process works (e.g., how bills are written and introduced, how committee hearings are developed and executed and how oversight of Federal agencies is conducted) and how it informs policy, and to contribute to NOAA’s mission while supporting NOAA’s House of Representatives Congressional Authorizations Committees.
Estimated start – end date:
February 2022 – September 2022
Project title: EPP CSC student: Spatial modeling of diets, predation, and the pelagic food web of the California Current
Hypothesis or objectives:
In the California Current, modeling of marine food web dynamics has lacked a comprehensive species diet database of the type available for other US regions. Previous California Current diet syntheses primarily relied on literature reports rather than information at the level of individual predator stomachs or scats (see Szobsolai et al. 2015, Wippel et al. 2017). Recently however, as part of the Atlantis ecosystem modeling, our team at NWFSC has been exploring a new diet database, with thousands of predator diets, including fish, sharks, and pinnipeds. Uses of this include identifying predators most dependent on forage fish, understanding how diets shift over space and time, and quantifying which predators exert the strongest topdown mortality on forage stocks.
Estimated start – end date:
May 2022 – August 2022
