It’s only been 2 weeks and this REU summer has felt so much longer! Earlier this week, Olivia and our mentor Amy, and I met to learn more about our project and possibly get out own research questions set. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we went out to Good Thunder down south and took on the wetlands of rural Minnesota. These wetlands are surrounded by corn and soy farms, which is why they are critical to study. Our team will be looking at nitrogen uptake. We spent the last couple of days in waders in swampy waters, surrounded by cattails and wild parsnip.

So far, it’s been great being out in the field. We saw big fat tadpoles, turtles, trumpeter swans, american white pelicans, and plenty of little fish. We took a couple of kayaks out to get to the water furthest out and that was a lot of fun too.

Doing field study can be a lot of fun, but I don’t think people realize how  much prep has to go into it and how exhausting even one day can be. I’m looking forward to this weekend to catch up on some sleep though forsure!!