Beginning Research

I’m conducting research for the REU summer research program for 2008. The name of my lab mentors are Dr. Jorge Ortiz and Debora Figueroa . We are housed in the El Verde Field Station in Puerto Rico. The project I’m working on involves evaluating the quality of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in two tropical streams that receive water waste treatment plant (WWTP) effluent. We are trying to see how the quality of the carbon changes after the addition of effluent so that we can determine the effects of urbanization on the trophic structure of the river systems. I arrived in the city on June 6th, at 5:00 pm. My first impression of the city was that it was hot and humid, and the people spoke very much like Cubans, which made me feel at home. All the other students in the program are from all over the U.S. and from Puerto Rico. They are very nice, cool people and we are becoming fast friends. I begin my field research on monday (the 16th) and I'm very excited! -- Maylen Perez