 |
 |
 |
|
Looking
for what you cannot see: Krista Saladino
gets her hands wet investigating the depths
of a lake.
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
Probing beneath the surface
Krista
Saladino’s introduction to field work was hardly
glamorous. "We camped for two nights. The first
night we had to set up our tents in the rain,"
she says grinning. She loved it.
Saladino,
a junior studying geosciences, and graduate student
Mike Moreland spent the summer paddling through lakes
in a bright yellow raft, using a cylindrical probe to
measure water temperature, conductivity, salinity, dissolved
oxygen, turbidity, and pH—indicators of lake health.
Attached
to the multi-sensor probe is a handheld computer that
stores and displays the data. "The probe lets you
take measurements at different depths, sort of like
getting a snapshot of a slice of the lake," says
Saladino. "A lake may look beautiful," she
explains, "but you have to collect data to find
out what’s really happening in the water."
"Mike
really trusted me to do a lot," says Saladino.
"The probe was a new and expensive piece of equipment
for us, so we were trying to figure out how to use it
correctly."
Saladino’s
field experience will form the basis of her undergraduate
thesis, a requirement for all geosciences majors. "Research
teaches you team work, organization, how to communicate
results," she adds. "It prepares you for the
real world."
Krista
Saladino is an undergraduate student in the Department
of Geosciences in the College of Earth and Mineral
Sciences at Penn State.
|
information
