My name is Grace Davis and I am a senior at the University of North Carolina Wilmington pursuing a degree in Oceanography. This summer I was a NOAA Ernest F. Hollings Intern at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center Narragansett Lab in Narragansett, Rhode Island.
As a Hollings intern, I had the incredible opportunity to work with NOAA scientists in satellite oceanography. I chose to intern at the Narragansett Lab because I am looking to pursue a career in satellite and physical oceanography, so I knew that the skills I would gain from this internship would be essential. I also was looking for the right mentors for me. My mentors, Kimberly Hyde and Haley Synan, offered the best mentorship experience I could have asked for.
I was nervous going in because this was my first time doing any kind of research. I knew that I had a lot to learn, but that was the exciting part—I knew I would walk out knowing so much more than before.
The Colors of the Ocean
My internship project focused on investigating the phytoplankton of the Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf, from Maine to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Phytoplankton, microscopic marine organisms, form the base of marine food webs and provide the energy to sustain healthy, diverse ecosystems. Times of high phytoplankton abundance, called blooms, are important to many marine species because they use the timings of bloom to guide life processes, such as mating, spawning, and migration. We chose to study the timings of phytoplankton bloom cycles because they are vital to our fisheries and changes could have rippling impacts on our commercial fish species.
To study phytoplankton bloom timing, we used ocean color remote sensing data. Phytoplankton contain chlorophyll-a, a photosynthetic pigment, so they reflect green light. Satellites can determine phytoplankton abundance by observing the light reflected from the ocean surface. While a fascinating dataset, it proved challenging because I had no experience with our coding software, Python, or working with such an extensive dataset. Despite this, I calculated more than 15 individual bloom metrics (such as length and start and end dates) and six regional metrics (such as the number of blooms and bloom days per year).
The most surreal part of the internship for me was presenting my research. It was amazing to think that I had created these products and contributed to scientific research and it was even more amazing to think my products will continue to be used to monitor ecosystem health for years. I am really proud of what I accomplished this summer and am so grateful for this opportunity.
Outside the Lab
Alongside my project, we were given the opportunity to visit other science center labs and tour the NOAA research vessel Pisces. My favorite part of the tours were getting to see all of the different people who worked for NOAA Fisheries. Before this internship, I never saw myself working with NOAA Fisheries because I am not a marine biologist, but meeting physical oceanographers working within Fisheries helped me see the variety of paths one could take.
What will I miss the most? Definitely the people I worked with. Everyone was so supportive of me and the other intern, Ned Gable. I learned so much from everyone and I am so grateful to have met them and learned from them. I’ll also miss my daily walks to Narragansett Bay but I look forward to continuing my studies in satellite and physical oceanography and maybe one day working for NOAA.
