Throughout the summer, Purdue Forestry and Natural Resources will be featuring various students and their work in the field.
First, we hear from Grace Walker, a senior in Aquatic Sciences. She is doing an internship this summer as a Seasonal Aquatic Biologist with the Muncie Bureau of Water Quality.
In just over a week on the job, Grace has been doing quite a bit of electrofishing and also has started working with IDEM to collect some tote barge data as well.
Her research project will be looking at the changes in species abundance above and below a few dams, which were removed from the White River last year due to age and disrepair. Data had been collected over the last 40 years above and below the dams in terms of species found in those spots. Now that the dams have been removed, Grace will aim to see if the change in habitat has affected where the fish are now.
Check back throughout the summer to see what other FNR students are up to as they take their studies from the classroom to the field.