This Research Experience for Undergraduates will provide undergraduate students with an opportunity to develop essential skills in the design, execution and dissemination of original research that quantifies the hydrologic and biogeochemical fluxes in the watershed of a tropical montane cloud forest. Students will work on field and laboratory research under the guidance of faculty mentors at the newly constructed Texas A&M Soltis Center for Research and Education near San Isidro in central Costa Rica. The REU site will provide a unique international opportunity for students to be immersed in the practice of active inquiry and research on: (1) multi-scale climate feedbacks and climate change, (2) hydro-meteorological transfers through the canopy, (3) hydrologic pathways and fluxes, and (4) biogechemical cycling of carbon and water. Students will be selected through a regional and national recruitment and advertising plan that targets underrepresented groups at schools with limited opportunities for international field research. With grounding in the scientific method, faculty mentors will assist students in developing research questions, and to collect and analyze rich data sets using sophisticated field and laboratory equipment.
Participating students will join a multidisciplinary faculty from Atmospheric Science, Ecosystem Science and Management, Environmental and Water Resources Engineering and Geography with a unifying focus on the hydrology and biogeochemical fluxes within a watershed of a tropical montane cloud forest. While it is generally accepted that cloud forest vegetation is important to the interception of cloud-water, the quantity of water intercepted, the hydrologic pathways and the impact on biogeochemical cycles remain poorly understood. Since cloud forests are in the headwaters of most watersheds in Costa Rica, the results of the student research will quantify the role of cloud forests on downstream water availability. In this respect, the student-led research will provide much needed baseline information to recognize the importance of cloud forests to regional hydrology and biogeochemical cycling. Over the length of the REU program, students will contribute to a broader project to consider the impact of climate and land-cover change on cloud forest hydrology through field experiments in the mature, immature, recently logged and completely cleared areas. This level of understanding is critical to predicting the impact and response of cloud forests to a changing climate and regional land-use change. The outcomes of the REU will include joint faculty-student publications in leading research journals, seminars at host institutions in the United States and at the University of Costa Rica, and studies to assess the success of international field experiences.
Fifteen Texas A&M University (TAMU) faculty from the Colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Civil Engineering and Geosciences provided an integrative and interdisciplinary research experience and mentorship for undergraduate students to quantify the hydrologic and biogeochemical fluxes in the watershed of a tropical pre-montane forest in central Costa Rica. Specifically, The REU site provided undergraduate students with a unique international opportunity to be immersed in the practice of active inquiry and research on: (1) multi-scale climate feedbacks and climate change, (2) hydrometeorological transfers through the canopy, (3) hydrologic pathways and fluxes, and (4) the geologic framework and geophysical gradients. Following the scientific method, faculty mentors assisted students in developing research questions, and to collect and analyze rich data sets using sophisticated field and laboratory equipment. Since summer 2011, 30 students were given the opportunity to conduct original field research with faculty and graduate student mentors. The program advanced student-led discovery, while promoting training and learning through a problem-based and hands-on undergraduate research and mentoring program that is intended to build independence and confidence in research. Results of the research provided much needed baseline information on the importance of pre-montane forests to regional hydrology and bio-geochemical cycling. Since these forests are in the headwaters of most watersheds in Costa Rica, the student research quantified the role of pre-montane forests on downstream water availability. While it is generally accepted that forest vegetation is important to the interception of fog-, cloud-, and precipitation water, the quantity of water intercepted, the hydrologic pathways and the impact on biogeochemical cycles remain poorly understood particularly in these transitional environments. In this respect, the research completed by the students addressed the theoretical and methodological shortcomings that have hindered the development of a unified and multi-scale understanding of ecohydrology within tropical pre-montane forests that is required to predict the impact and response of pre-montane forests to changes in climate and land-use. Students presented the results of their research at a research symposium for REU programs at Texas A&M University at the end of each summer in addition to 9 presentations at the 2011 and 2012 fall Meetings of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2 at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and 1 at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA). Three of the students published their research through an Undergraduate Thesis at their home institutions and 10 of the students are authors on 4 papers that summarize the results of the 3 years of research. Of the 30 students, 14 are now in graduate programs, 11 are completing the senior year of their undergraduate degree with a plan to pursue a graduate degree, and 3 pursued a STEM related career in government and the private sector. Consistent with the applicant pool, the program introduced a diverse group of students to research including 20 female (considered an underrepresented group in civil engineering) and 2 Hispanic students, in addition to 11 first generation students and 12 students from non-research institutions.
