Well, this is it! I’m in my last semester of university (finally!) and heading off on a grand adventure to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for two months (from September 15th to November 15th). Not surprisingly, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (called WHOI for short) is located in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. This small village is located on the southwest corner of Cape Cod near Martha’s Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands and boasts a whopping population of around 800–granted, it is part of the larger city of Falmouth with a population of about 31,000. Woods Hole is a scientific community, housing both WHOI and Woods Hole Research Center. WHOI is the world’s largest private, non-profit oceanographic research institution and is a global leader in the study and exploration of the ocean. The WHOI name may ring a bell for some as the institution was involved in the discovery and expedition of the Titanic.
The delightful town of Woods Hole, MA
What am I doing in this out-of-the-way place, you may ask? Well, for the past year and a half I have been involved in a work study at the University of the Fraser Valley collecting water samples from the Fraser River and four of its tributary streams. I am presently conducting my own research, focusing on land use and its connection to dissolved nutrient levels in the tributary streams. My participation has been a part of a greater project called the Global Rivers Observatory (check this link out for more info and some pretty cool videos: http://www.globalrivers.org/). By assessing and analysing water quality data, we can understand how changes on land impact changes in water chemistry. Understanding the health of our water becomes increasingly important as the global population expands and climate changes.
Following this foray to the east coast, I will be heading out in December to a conference in San Francisco held by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) to present my research. On a side note: I entered a t-shirt design contest for the AGU and ended up winning free registration to the meeting (which is a big thing when you’re a poor university student). I must say that I’m pretty excited to see my design on a whack load of people’s shirts when I attend the conference. Here’s the design if you want to check it out: http://rosalieluymes.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/winning-t-shirt-design/.
So if you’re interested, feel free to follow me on this journey. So ready or not, here we go!
I’m going on this journey with two friends from school, one of which is also keeping a blog. If you want you can check it out here! http://livingandlearning123.wordpress.com/
Map and the Maker 