My name is Mia Alonso and I am a fourth-year environmental science major graduating this quarter. This summer, I am interning with the Zimmer Watershed Hydrology Group. The Zimmer lab studies surface water-groundwater interactions and the generation, pathways, and biogeochemical effects of rainfall runoff.

I will be working with a few of Margeret Zimmer’s graduate students on their ongoing projects, doing a variety of field, lab, and data analysis work. One of these projects studies the differences in characteristics like streamflow generation and plant water supply between north and south-facing slopes at Blue Oak Ranch Research Reserve. For this site, I will look at data from pressure transducers in piezometers, which measure groundwater levels. I will also do neutron probe measurements, slug tests, and well development. When I’m not in the field, I will do some R coding for groundwater quality assurance/quality control and slug test analyses using AQTESOLV software. Other fieldwork will take place at Elkhorn Slough, where I will do soil sampling and analyses. I will also contribute to research on the 2020 CZU fires through soil particle size analysis of samples collected by previous Geopaths interns. Outside of field and labwork, I will help with data entry and plotting using R, Python, and Excel.

My general goal for the summer is to gain field and lab experience relevant to hydrology. More specifically, I want to develop skills I can use in the future as I work toward my career goals, gain familiarity with field and lab environments, and expand my knowledge of hydrologic interactions. I want to use this experience to develop plans for work after the summer, graduate school goals, and my career interests, all of which will likely be influenced by the grad students I work with. This internship is meaningful to me because it allows me to work alongside some remarkable people and contribute to their research while developing my career goals. I also get to explore new hydrology applications and research topics, a field which I am endlessly fascinated by but have limited work experience in. I am truly grateful for this opportunity and will use it to learn as much as I can this summer.