GSA Online Application System
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Public Land Name: Position Title: Agency: NPS Position Type: GipGuest Position ID Number: Location: Anchorage, Alaska Accepting Applications? # of current Applicants: 0 Position Description: Lakes integrate water, energy, nutrients, sediments, and pollutants from the surrounding land and air. Therefore, lake water quality is a useful indicator of conditions both within and beyond watershed boundaries. The Southwest Alaska Network (SWAN) is one of 32 regional networks established as part of the National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring Program. SWAN monitors several lake water quality parameters, including temperature, pH, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen. Of these parameters, water temperature is particularly important because all the other parameters are directly related to it. SWAN monitors lake water temperature hourly, year-round at six sites. This monitoring relies on the use of programmable data loggers attached at various depths, from 1 to 100 m, on moored vertical lines called “temperature arrays.” Data from the temperature arrays allow tracking of freeze-up and break-ups dates, seasonal warming and cooling, and large-scale wind events. SWAN is seeking an intern to help finalize, summarize, and analyze the temperature array data, and then convey the results in a formal technical report. Specific tasks of this position will be to: (1) finalize the data via uploading, correcting, and grading them in a database called AQUARIUS; (2) produce summary statistics for the data using AQUARIUS and R; (3) assess status for select water temperature variables at a range of depths and time scales; (4) assess trend for select water temperature variables via seasonal Kendall analyses in R; and (5) document findings on status and trend in a publishable report. Time permitting, the intern will use ArcGIS and R to contribute to an ongoing analysis, the objective of which is to quantitatively link water temperatures in lakes with water temperatures in rivers downstream, in order to examine whether temperature fluctuations in rivers follow upwelling in lakes caused by wind events. This position is offered through the National Park Service's Geoscientists-in-the-Parks (GIP) Internship Program in partnership with Stewards Individual Placement Program (Stewards) and The Geological Society of America (GSA). Upon successful completion of the GIP internship, the participant is eligible for an AmeriCorps Education Award. If you have questions about the application and selection process, please contact GSA's GeoCorps managers. If you have questions about any aspect of the position — description, qualifications, housing, dates — please direct them to the contact(s) listed in the project description. Remember, application materials can only be submitted online. The project contact(s) will not accept application materials sent to them via e-mail, mail, fax, etc. See the full program details at the GeoCorps homepage. |
