Summer Science Research at Weber State
Anika Draper, geology major
May 24th, 2024
Hi there, my name is Anika Draper. I am a student at Weber State working towards a geology major with minors in botany and geospatial analysis. I've been attending since 2019 and have changed my major just a wee bit - as any students and advisors will tell you is normal! I finally gave in to my biggest passion, the planet!
I love studying and identifying rocks and their minerals as well as learning about all of the geoprocesses of Earth. My main passion, however, is the ever-looming problem of climate change and ways that we can reverse or at least stagnate global warming. During the summer of 2023, I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in 2 different yet somewhat overlapping research projects with Bridget Hilbig, Botany and Plant Ecology Department Chair, and Marek Matyjasik, Earth and Environmental Science Department Chair.
Hilbig’s project focused on determining the effects of wildfires on mycorrhizae populations. We traveled to several National Parks where we set up 40m x 40m box plots and took 52 soil cores as well as soil density cores and auger cores up to 30cm deep from each plot. We did 2 plots per site and anywhere from 2-4 sites per National Park. We are now in the laboratory phase of the project where we are doing soil digestion, ICP-MS analysis of the digested samples, and DNA analysis.
Matyjasik’s project was creating an online model to determine the effects of wildfires on the levels of nutrients and heavy metals in the soil. We combined WEPP (Water Erosion Prediction Project) erosion modeling, ArcGIS platform, and Python programming to be able to take previously gathered data from other research papers and create a moderately generalized equation that can predict what and how much nutrients and heavy metals will be in the soil near a watershed based on the severity of the wildfire. It was my responsibility to input the data into WEPP, transfer that data into Python, and then transfer that data into ArcGIS to create a visual map of the watershed containing the contaminated soil. I had the opportunity to individually present this research at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall ‘23 meeting in San Francisco this past December where several professors from various universities came up and discussed our research with me.
Independent research at Weber State is an opportunity that SHOULD NOT be passed up. The amount of skills you learn while on the job is immense and irreplaceable. As a hands-on learner myself, participating in these projects has helped me be a better student and have a clearer understanding of the methodology within my courses. Not to mention, you get to see some pretty cool stuff up close.
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Author:
Anika Draper, Weber State University student studying environmental sciences and presenter at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall 2023. | Discovering Solutions in Science.
Contact:
Ali Miller, College of Science
marketing and communications manager
amiller@weber.edu