Project Description: The purpose of this project is to establish a student internship program between the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Assateague Island National Seashore. Both graduate and undergraduate students will participate in research projects that are of relevance to the Seashore and will be under the guidance of a Seashore mentor and a UMES faculty mentor.
The NPS-UMES student internship program will encompass two projects that will provide support to the mission of the NPS at Assateague Island National Seashore, and valuable research experiences for those students involved. Each project will differ in scope. One project will entail a detailed analysis of nutrient flux in the Maryland Coastal Bays, and how this relates to other environmental factors such as land usage and the influence of water flow and wind forces. As this project will necessitate the need for some expertise in mathematical modeling, we will utilize a UMES PI (Dr. Meng Xia) and graduate student who have the necessary background. The student will participate in data collection during the monthly water quality monitoring survey that the NPS has been conducting at the Seashore for ~20 years. The NPS mentor for this work will be the Seashore Aquatic Ecologist.
The second project is intended as more traditional undergraduate student field study experiences and introduction to management and stewardship of natural resources. Interns will assist NPS staff with a wide range of field resource monitoring programs including invasive plant management, water quality monitoring, vegetation studies, threatened and endangered species monitoring and mapping, wildlife surveys and various other natural resource management field projects. Each student will be housed on-site at Assateague Island National Seashore, along with other student interns.
Lead Principal Investigator: Dr. Joseph Pitula, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore
Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Meng Xia,
Partner Institution: University of Maryland, Eastern Shore
Federal Agency: National Park Service
Federal Agency Technical Contact: Bill Hulslander
Project Type: Research
Project Discipline: Natural Resources
Start Year: 2014
End Year: 2019
Initial Funding Amount: $37,014.00
Federal Grant Number: P14AC01117
Amendments
- Amendment Number: 01, Year: 2018, Amount: $0.00
National Park or Protected Area: Assateague Island (NPS)
State(s): Maryland
Products Associated with this Project: