{"id":9501,"date":"2023-11-15T13:14:01","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T18:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/international-programs\/?p=9501"},"modified":"2023-11-15T15:34:12","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T20:34:12","slug":"nutrient-cycling-ecuador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/international-programs\/news\/nutrient-cycling-ecuador\/","title":{"rendered":"Nutrient Cycling Research in the Mountains of Ecuador"},"content":{"rendered":"

SUMMER 2023<\/h3>\n

Cormac Holland<\/strong><\/p>\n

During my time studying\u00a0at the Universidad de Cuenca in Ecuador, I participated in a research project entitled “Nutrient cycling under different vegetation covers in a mountain area in southern Ecuador.”\u00a0<\/em>The project sought to describe the nutrient cycling rates and types within 4 distinct environments (native forest,\u00a0Pinus patula\u00a0<\/em>plantations, Paramo grassland, and pasture)\u00a0located in the Southern Andes. I contributed to the project primarily through sample collection, sample processing, and data entry. This included identification, sorting, and weighing of collected biomass, weighing and calculating density of soil samples, and bi-weekly trips to research plots (roughly an hour and a half from the university) for sample collection. In my final report on the research, I outlined the importance of the project, utilized descriptive statistics\u00a0to detail biomass accumulation over a 2-year period in each of the plots, and shared several positive identifications for trees and shrubs within the native forest plots sourced from local experts. Overall, it was the experience of a lifetime and I learned so much about proper research techniques and the level of depth needed to successfully and correctly conduct credible research.<\/p>\n

\"\"
0-30 centimeters of soil collected from a native forest plot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Native forest research plot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Universidad de Cuenca \u2013 Campus Yanuncay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false,"raw":"

SUMMER 2023<\/h3>\r\nCormac Holland<\/strong>\r\n\r\nDuring my time studying\u00a0at the Universidad de Cuenca in Ecuador, I participated in a research project entitled \"Nutrient cycling under different vegetation covers in a mountain area in southern Ecuador.\"\u00a0<\/em>The project sought to describe the nutrient cycling rates and types within 4 distinct environments (native forest,\u00a0Pinus patula\u00a0<\/em>plantations, Paramo grassland, and pasture)\u00a0located in the Southern Andes. I contributed to the project primarily through sample collection, sample processing, and data entry. This included identification, sorting, and weighing of collected biomass, weighing and calculating density of soil samples, and bi-weekly trips to research plots (roughly an hour and a half from the university) for sample collection. In my final report on the research, I outlined the importance of the project, utilized descriptive statistics\u00a0to detail biomass accumulation over a 2-year period in each of the plots, and shared several positive identifications for trees and shrubs within the native forest plots sourced from local experts. Overall, it was the experience of a lifetime and I learned so much about proper research techniques and the level of depth needed to successfully and correctly conduct credible research.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_9339\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"768\"]\"\" 0-30 centimeters of soil collected from a native forest plot[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_9340\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"768\"]\"\" Native forest research plot[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_9502\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"]\"\" Universidad de Cuenca \u2013 Campus Yanuncay[\/caption]"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUMMER 2023 Cormac Holland During my time studying\u00a0at the Universidad de Cuenca in Ecuador, I participated in a research project entitled “Nutrient cycling under different vegetation covers in a mountain area in southern Ecuador.”\u00a0The project sought to describe the nutrient […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":914,"featured_media":9338,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-pack-abroad"],"acf":[],"flickr_id":"","youtube_id":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/international-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/international-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/international-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/international-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/914"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/international-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9501"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/international-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9543,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/international-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9501\/revisions\/9543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/international-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/international-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/international-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/international-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}