An intern is sought to spend the summer investigating the health of Waquoit Bay and its salt marshes. Waquoit Bay is experiencing changes due to global warming and eutrophication, from air and water temperature increases, lower dissolved oxygen concentrations and elevated chlorophyll levels to potential changes in wind speed and direction. Researchers at WBNERR wish to investigate the timing and seasonality of these changes – if these changes are relatively uniform across all seasons or if they are due to highly pronounced seasonal phenomena (ie: earlier algal blooms, increasing occurrences of hypoxia/anoxia, heatwaves, droughts etc…). The successful intern will support WBNERR research staff monitoring Waquoit Bay’s water quality through the Reserve’s System-Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP), carry out field work in the surrounding salt marshes, and analyze data from previous years as well as data collected in the field over the summer.
Primary duties will include:
1) Collecting and processing water samples for nutrient and pigment (chlorophyll) assessment.
2) Calibrating, deploying, and maintaining water quality data loggers at four different sites in Waquoit Bay, as well as conducting data entry and QA/QC on retrieved data.
3) Tracking surface elevation and vegetation changes in the salt marshes around Waquoit Bay.
4) Performing data analysis (in R or Python or ArcGIS) on datasets from previous years as well as data collected in 2025.
5) Preparing, cleaning, and maintaining all materials used for WBNERR’s water quality and salt marsh monitoring program.