USGS Coral Reef Project

Abstract:

UCSC GEOPATHS is a NSF-supported initiative to improve student success in the geosciences, driven by a desire to broaden participation. One component of the program is an undergraduate student internship that provides authentic, career-relevant experiences – across all employment sectors – to increase student engagement in the geosciences pipeline.

My GEOPATHS Internship at the U.S. Geological Survey focused on assimilating and mapping data for different anthropogenic, environmental, and socioeconomic factors that could negatively affect the coral reef health within the U.S. Using existing databases, we gathered data and visualized the data via ArcMap to depict how each factor is distributed around the coral reefs in American Samoa, Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Each map is based on one of the anthropogenic, environmental, or socioeconomic factors. Areas within the map that are negatively impacted by the selected factor are colored red while areas that are positively impacted, or not impacted at all, are colored green. The information from all of the factors will be brought together to evaluate the overall threats to the different reefs and be useful to guide coral reef management and protection. This internship allowed me to enhance my skills in GIS and scientific writing while also teaching me the geophysical and socioeconomic drivers of reef health. I will share the results of my project and experiences in the program.