The River Basins Research Initiative (RBRI) NSF-REU Site, will incorporate 15 undergraduate science majors at the sophomore or junior level into an extensive 10-week interdisciplinary research program that is focused on the biogeochemistry of river systems in the upstate of South Carolina. Nine of the students will be funded by NSF-REU and six will be funded jointly by NSF-REU and the Universidad metropolitana, San Juan, Puerto Rico. The faculty involved in this program are from the departments of earth and environmental sciences, biology, and chemistry and have developed a moded system for interdisciplinary integration. Students involved in the research will be introduced to a variety of analytical systems, work on interdisciplinary teams and participate in all phases of the research from planning, to sample collection, sample analysis, and data analysis. The long-term goals of this research program are to quantify the extent of human impact on aquatic biota in the Lower Broad River Basin in the upstate region of South Carolina and to characterize biogeochemical cycles in a subtropical weathering regime.
