UC Riverside's Natural Reserve System Summer Internship 2024
The mission of the UC Natural Reserve System is to preserve natural and wild places for research and education. Most of our visitors are researchers, graduate students, or undergraduates enrolled in field course. In order to make the reserves more accessible to undergraduates, the UC Riverside NRS Summer Internship provides inclusive field-based research experiences. Inclusivity here refers to a diversity of student identities, backgrounds, career levels, majors, and perspectives. We hope to introduce undergraduates to many possible areas of study and careers in natural areas while building a supportive mentoring network.
This is a 10-week summer internship that pairs undergraduates with faculty or staff working at the UCR Natural Reserves. Students will contribute to scientific research with a mentor, graduate students, and/or associates at a lab and field station at UCR. No previous field experience required.
-
Internship dates June 20th - August 23th 2024
-
Funding Available: $6,000 stipend
-
Other expenses will be considered on a case-by-case basis
-
40 hours/ week with flexible hours depending on the project
-
Travel to UCR campus and reserves is expected
-
May require overnight stays on a reserve
Undergraduates who are over 18 years old and currently enrolled in an undergraduate program at an accredited institution local to UCR, and working towards an associates or bachelors degree at the time of application. Students will be responsible for their own housing. Experience doing field work is not required.
Applications are due April 7th, and awards will be announced early May 2024.
2024 Projects
Look through the great projects we have listed below! If you are applying for the internship we will ask you to rank them on the application (button above).
A. Biodiversity Survey of Heteroptera and Parasitic Hymenoptera at UC Reserves
Mentors:Dr. John Heraty (UCR) and Dr. Christiane Weirauch (UCR)
Insects are the most diverse group of eukaryotic organisms. Our UC Reserves cover a wide range of ecosystems across the California Floristic Province biodiversity hotspot. However, the insect fauna of these reserves is still severely understudied. This is particularly true for insect groups where individuals are small and where many species are still unknown to science. We are looking for interns that would help to sample and curate two very diverse groups, the Heteroptera (true bugs) and Hymenoptera (specifically parasitoid wasps). This project will use a variety of collecting techniques (Malaise traps, yellow pan traps, sweeping vegetation, etc.) at multiple reserves (Granite Mountains, James Reserve, Emerson Oaks, Motte Rimrock) to survey these insects. Specimens will be sorted to morphospecies and imaged at UCR to become part of a large barcoding initiative for insects across all of California. A goal of this project is to get an initial assessment of species richness at each of the four sites. Interns will gain experience in the recognition of insect families, collecting techniques, curation of insect material, databasing and the basics of molecular sequencing.
B. Bumblebees of the UC Natural Reserve System
Mentor: Dr. Hollis Woodard (UCR)
Bumble bees are important pollinators in many natural and agricultural systems, but many species within the group are declining and face potential extinction. Improving our understanding of where they are found and patterns of genetic diversity within species are both critical to conserving bumble bees. This project will examine how bumble bees (both individuals and populations) are shaped by their environments, focusing on understanding the genetics of disparate populations in the mountainous areas of Southern California.
This internship will support the new California Bumble Bee Atlas Project (www.cabumblebeeatlas.org), which is a partnership between the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The intern will help survey bumble bees, collect tissue samples and data from the field, and assist with ongoing laboratory projects in the Woodard lab. The intern will receive training in field research methods and safety, bee identification, conservation biology, genetics/genomics, and experimental biology.
C. The Role of Flowers in Providing Probiotics for Bees
Mentor: Dr. Quinn McFrederick (UCR)
We have discovered that flowers serve as hubs of transmission for beneficial bacteria that are shared among many bee species. These bacteria are picked up and deposited on flowers, and eventually wind up in the nests of wild and solitary bees.
In this project, we will sample a diversity of flowers in order to determine the abundance and distribution of these bacteria across the flowering plant communities at various reserves. We will use culturing to isolate the bacteria, then DNA sequencing to identify the isolated species. The intern will therefore learn field techniques, microbiology, molecular biology, and basic bioinformatics. The results will help us understand how we may one day design seed mixes for restoration efforts that would increase the availability of these beneficial bacteria and therefore benefit bees.
D. Ecology of Desert Tortoises in the Southern Coachella Valley
Mentors: Dr. Jeff Lovich (USGS), Dr. Bill Hoese (CSU Fullerton), Dr. Chris Tracy (UCR Deep Canyon Reserve)
Desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) are an iconic species that lives throughout the Mojave and Colorado Deserts. The burrows of this federally threatened species provide shelter for a wide range of species, including birds, mammals, and other reptiles. The population of desert tortoises south of the Coachella Valley is isolated from the rest of the species range and occurs both at the edge of the species range and lower elevations than are typical for the species. However, no published studies are available for this population of tortoises. Because low desert elevations tend to be relatively hotter and drier, tortoises in this area may provide insights into how tortoises elsewhere will have to cope with climate change. This ongoing project will involve monitoring activity at tortoise burrows in the Boyd Deep Canyon Reserve (near Palm Desert) and may involve a number of techniques and collaborators. Camera traps have been set at several known burrows to monitor tortoise activity and burrow use by other species, and radio transmitters have been attached to some tortoises to monitor their movements and other behaviors. The intern will have opportunities to develop wildlife and data management skills that may open doors for future jobs in conservation biology. The project will involve maintaining camera traps, viewing videos from the traps and extracting data from them, other data analysis, radio tracking of tortoises, finding new burrows, and observing tortoise behaviors in the wild. The project will involve several trips to the Deep Canyon Reserve that might include overnight stays. It will require hiking in rough desert terrain during the summer, when temperatures will often be over 100°F. The intern will be working primarily at the Deep Canyon Reserve with researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey, UCR, and Cal. State Fullerton to help understand tortoise behaviors in this understudied population, as well as use of tortoise burrows by tortoises and other species.
E. Forest Dynamics
Mentor: Marko Spasojevic (UCR)
Forests play key roles in biodiversity maintenance and climate regulation. Globally, forests support over half of all described species and provide many valuable ecosystem functions and services such as timber, clear air, clean water, and carbon storage. However, forests worldwide are being threatened by habitat loss, drought, and changing fire regimes, which have all resulted in losses to biodiversity and alterations to key ecosystem functions and services. Understanding and predicting how forests will respond to ongoing and pervasive changes to the environment is critical for biodiversity conservation and for the management and maintenance of ecosystem services. To address this, the Spasojevic Ecology lab at UC-Riverside has established a 4ha Forest Dynamics Plot (FDP) adjacent to the James Reserve. Briefly, within the FDP every free-standing woody stem (live or dead) greater than 1cm in diameter has been identified to species, mapped, measured, and tagged for long term monitoring. In establishing this plot, we have observed that many of the Conifers are dead or dying and that there are few Conifers recruiting into this forest. On the other hand, very few Oaks have died and there are many Oaks recruiting into the forest. These patterns suggest a potential shift in the composition of the forest from a mixed Oak-Conifer Forest to a more Oak dominated system. This change in the composition of the forest can have important ramifications for carbon storage, as Oaks are slower growing than Pines, as well as implications for the rest of the plants and animals that depend on these species. We are seeking an intern that is interested in plant ecology and climate change who is seeking to gain field experience (spending most of their research time in the field).
F. Plant-Insect Interactions in the UC Natural Reserve System
Mentor: Dr. Erin Rankin (UCR)
Interested in plant-insect interactions? Join us out in the field to study herbivores and pollinators of mallows! We will be documenting and photographing herbivory damage, as well as the floral visitors to damaged and undamaged plants. During flowering, we will count flowers and document floral color variation and any floral damage. After flowering, we will collect any new seed pods and assess any root sucker growth.
G. Hybrid Penstemon
Mentor: Dr. Kate Ostevik (UCR)
Hybrids between species are an overlooked but important source of biodiversity. In fact, sometimes hybrids become independent species that are distinct from both of their parents! In this project, the intern will work with the Ostevik lab to explore differences between the hybrid species, Cleveland’s Beardtongue (Penstemon clevelandii), and its parents, scarlet and showy Beardtongue (P. centranthifolius and P. spectabilis). These beautiful plant species are native to several UCR Reserves where much of this project will take place. The project will involve a mix of field work, greenhouse work, and data analysis.
H. Understanding Drought Through Rainfall Manipulation Experiments
Mentor: Dr. Pete Homyak (UCR)
Nitrogen emissions from soils (N2, NOx, and N2O) are products/byproducts of biological processes and are often ignored in ecosystem nutrient budgets. However, soil N gas fluxes are an important pathway for ecosystem nutrient loss, particularly in regions with strong seasonality such as California, whose Mediterranean climate produces strong temporal gradients in soil moisture. Furthering understanding of the mechanisms that control soil N emissions is important for modeling N pollution at a global scale since semiarid ecosystems account for 1/3 of the land surface and 25% of global soil NO emissions.
Our lab is quantifying the significance of gaseous N pathways, by linking biological processes with periods of stress to soil microbes (drought), and by understanding how legacies of past precipitation affect N emissions and N cycling.
To understand mechanisms of gaseous N production, we integrate both C and N measurements with isotopic tools in both field and laboratory experiments.