REU Projects
Past Research Project Opportunities
*This table will continue to be updated as projects are developed for the summer*
Projects in this REU are organized into the three theme areas given below to help you identify research areas of most interest to you. It is important to note, however, that many projects may include components that span across multiple research areas.
Theme Area #1: Geospatial and Computational – projects that utilize tools like GIS, remote sensing, numerical modeling, data science, and/or programming techniques
Theme Area #2: Social Science, Policy, and Education – projects that focus on human dimensions of coastal problems, including education and outreach
Theme Area #3: Geoscience, Ecology, and Engineering – projects that utilize disciplinary knowledge of environmental systems and approaches to address coastal issues
Please see past project topics below.
| Theme Area | Project Information |
|---|---|
| 2 | Scoping marine energy for maritime economies Project Description: The student will use outcomes from focus groups that Project PIs will hold with maritime economy stakeholders in spring 2025 to finalize a survey instrument aimed at assessing marine energy awareness, scoping the energy needs of maritime economies that could be met by marine energy, and identifying opportunities for communication. The student will distribute the survey through appropriate outlets and analyze responses. |
| 1 | Sensing Salinity in Coastal Regions Project Description: This project will focus on understanding how coastal regions are being impacted by shoreline and wetland change. The project will involve learning how to use and deploy wireless environmental sensors and geophysical imaging to characterize salt in wetland, agricultural, and/or forested areas. A scholar working on this project should be interested in field work, data analysis, hydrology, and the impacts of environmental change. Useful skills will include programming in Python or Matlab, GIS, intellectual curiosity, and the ability to learn from and plan for changing research conditions. |
| 1/2/3 | Coastal Agricultural Watershed Preparedness Project Description: The overall goal of this project is to develop an integrated socio-environmental coupled systems model that captures the interrelationships between policy, farmer behavior, nutrient processes, and downstream water quality under current conditions and in a predicted future with more nitrogen and greater saltwater intrusion. We will use measured microbial nitrogen processing rates and watershed modeling predictions using SWAT+ to examine how land use management (cover crops, fertilizer application) and coastal change influence nitrogen processes and coastal water quality. The REU scholar will focus on improving the simulation of coastal wetland processes in the existing SWAT+ model. The project could include participation in field sampling or an economics component where the attitudes of farmers are incorporated into the model. |
| 3 | Determining the age composition of an invasive fish population in Albemarle Sound, NC Project Description: The Albemarle Sound is a large brackish-water estuary that holds enormous importance to North Carolina. During the last 15 years, an invasive fish (blue catfish, Ictalurus furcatus) has exploded in abundance and might be altering the food web in major ways. This project will be analyzing blue catfish otoliths in the laboratory, which are bone-like structures in the inner-ear that can be used to determine a fish's age. The goal of this will be to improve our understanding of age and growth characteristics of this invasive population. The student will also participate in routine sampling of blue catfish and other fishes in the field. |
| 1/3 | Monitoring the impact of shoreline change and local anthropogenic impacts on coastal wetlands Project Description:Coastal wetlands and submerged aquatic vegetation are particularly vulnerable to both large-scale environmental change and local natural and anthropogenic disturbances. The REU scholar will assist with monitoring the interaction of water quality, coastal erosion, and SAV in Currituck Sound to reduce impacts of local development for NC Department of Transportation and will also assist in monitoring saltwater intrusion and vegetation change in different study areas in coastal North Carolina. The scholar will also focus on integrating remote sensing, field and water sensor data, so a student interested in data integration is ideal. |