Sample Project Ideas

You can use the sample projects below to help you develop a project idea. Feel free to craft a project that blends these ideas with an idea of your own.

• For 2-unit internships, you will most likely contribute to a project (e.g., add data to a census, or do physical restoration work.)
• A senior internship might take on a larger project and would probably be developed in conjuction with your advisor.
• A 5-unit internship would be somewhere in-between.
• All interns are encouraged, but not required, to do some hands-on restoration work in the dirt or mud.

Research/Observation

• Explore one or more factors that impact duck abundance and diversity and propose strategies to increase:
• Physical characteristics such as depth diversity and shoreline complexity, emergent vegetation vs open water ratio
• Predator-risk such as raptor population and availability of safe zones such as islands
• Food availability, such as seed-rich shore vegetation, invertebrates, submerged aquatic vegetation (and associated invertebrates)
• Surrounding environment such as nearby wetlands, upland habitat
• Water quality (clarity, nutrient density, toxicity)
• Water drawdown/refill pattern
• Explore how starlings, tri-colored/red-winged/Brewer's blackbirds, and other tule-roosting birds utilize the pond habitat. What factors lead to various murmuration patterns? How do the birds of different species mix or segregate in flight and while roosting in the tule? What factors control species abundance annually? What areas of tule removal would impact which species (e.g., non-native Starlings vs threatened tri-colored blackbirds)?
• Explore the distribution of vegetation at the pond. How does the abundance of forage species, waterfowl food plants, and less-ecologically-functional plant species impact the ecology?
• Bird census project: In this ongoing project you will spend sessions at the Kalkar Pond at 3 different times of day (early morning, afternoon, and sunset). You'll use tools like Merlin, your ears and eyes, and other clues (e.g., poop) to find and identify birds. You'll record obersvations in a database to create an ongoing record of avian residents for use by other intern researchers (and other scientists). You'll be expected over the quarter to do at least 3 illustrations to help enhance observation skills, and suggest at least 2 ways you think the habitat could be "improved".
• Produce a census for aquatic plants and algae. Develop a plan for keying species. Develop a picture guide for future students adding to the census. Explore what the presence and abundance of particular species indicates.
• Place and monitor trail cameras and webcams to gather data for your project or other intern projects.
• Monitor water chemistry (e.g., presence of Phosphorous and Nitrates/Ammonia) relative to proximity to runoff pipe vs. spring input.

Hands-On Restoration

• Remove bulrush or pampas grass or other vegetation from an area as indicated by another project.
• Plant native vegetation as directed as part of an existing native plant restoration project.
• Implement an experiment where (with guidance) you manipulate some aspect of the ecosystem and compare it to a control area (e.g., for waterfowl usage, insect population, plant growth, etc.)
• Create set of areas that are treated with a bubbler (oxygenation) or enzymatic digesting substance to see impact on vegetation, invertebrates, or other ecological metric.
• Implement a treatment in the willow upland area to create habitat for a target amphibian

Manipulations/Experiments

• Perform a bioassay experiment in which you create 3 mini ponds in buckets (with pond water, sediment, and plants from Kalkar Pond) situated in a shallow pond area for temperature control. Use a provided protocol to add pure Phosphorous fertilizer to one, pure Nitrogen fertilizer to one, and nothing to the third. Monitor the results to determine if the pond is currently P-limited, N-limited, or co-limited.

Engineering

• Develop a better mechanism for controlling drawdown/water storage to help create mudflats and moist soil to create areas for native plants that attract waterfowl.
• Develop an Arduino-based sensor that deliver continuous monitoring of water temperature, water flow, TDS, turbidity or other metrics for use by other projects.

History/Art

• Explore aspects of the history of water in Santa Cruz. What was the natural watercourse 150 (early Santa Cruz), 250 (at arrival of Spanish), 500 (pre-colonization) years ago?
• What can we learn from the earliest recorded wildlife surveys at Kalkar Pond? How might earlier wildlife surveys from older waterbodies (e.g., Westlake Pond) help guide restoration targets?
• What types of crafts, structures, cookware, etc. were historically built from emergent vegetation in wetlands of Santa Cruz?
• What types of signage could help teach visitors to Kalkar Pond about how to be part of its protection or to better understand its history?