Hi blogosphere! It’s been awhile since my last post, but in that time I successfully defended and completed my Masters Thesis! It was a long process and is already starting to seem so long ago now. The days leading up to my defense were anxiety driven, but I was surprisingly calm the day of. Now I am working on turning the thesis into a manuscript for submission and preparing a talk about our results for the Society for Freshwater Science conference in Raleigh, NC this week!
Me at my Thesis Defense
This summer also marks the beginning of my PhD journey and although I am not starting on a completely different project it almost feels as if I am starting all over. For field work this summer I am continuing to look at nitrogen processing on a microhabitat scale and also assessing changes in the microbial community composition on this scale. I have been busy making piezometers this past week to use in the field this summer to measure dissolved oxygen concentrations and the vertical hydrological gradient in the microhabitats.
Piezometers in construction
So I have been stuck in lab this first part of the summer term prepping materials and wrapping up my thesis, but I have gotten to go out in the field a few times with Kevin to help sample. I love sampling even when it is long days and I can’t wait to get back in the field this summer and update you guys as we travel to field sites across the U.S.!
Bye for now! -Erin