Title: Water Quality Analysis Internship in Alaska Agency: National Park Service
Location: Anchorage, Alaska Website: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/geoscientistsinparks/index.htm To Apply: https://rock.geosociety.org/eo/GeoCorpsJobDescriptions_gip.asp (scroll to bottom) Salary: $7,000 for 20 weeks ($350/week) Housing Allowance: $2,950 for 20 weeks ($147.50/week) Travel Allowance: $1,000.00 (for non-Alaska residents) Start Date: 10/30/2017 (flexible) End Date: 3/16/2018 (flexible) Application Period: 5/1/2017 - 6/30/2017 Position Description: The National Park Service's Southwest Alaska Network (SWAN) is seeking an intern to help finalize, summarize, and analyze vertical profile data from several large lakes in southwest Alaska, and to 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. Work Products: • Uploaded, corrected, and graded data for six temperature arrays, made publicly available through the NPS database, AQUARIUS; • Tabular and graphical summaries of water temperature variables derived from the temperature array data; • Technical report documenting status and trend of water temperature variables, intended for publication in the NPS Natural Resource Report series; • R code created during the course of the project, fully commented for transparency; and • Intermediate data sets generated during the course of the project. Qualifications: Applicants must have strong backgrounds in data analysis, as demonstrated through coursework in statistics, applied mathematics, ecological modeling, etc. Applicants must also be proficient at programming in R. Experience communicating scientific information verbally and in writing and the ability to work independently and meet agreed upon deadlines are also required. Experience with Arc GIS is helpful but not required. GIP participants are considered AmeriCorps members: AmeriCorps limits the number of terms an individual can serve to 4 terms. If an applicant has previously completed 4 GIP or other AmeriCorps positions, he/she will not be eligible to apply for an additional GIP position. The applicant must be a U.S. citizen or U.S. permanent legal resident (“green-card-holder”) between the ages of 18 and 35 years old. Prior to starting this position a government security background clearance will be required. Contact: Krista Bartz ([email protected])
