Environmental Internship Program - 2019 Booklet

Lauren von Berg ’20
COMPUTER SCIENCE
CLIMATE CHANGE AND
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
PROJECT TITLE
Maud Rise Polynyas
Linked to Largest
Phytoplankton Bloom in
Southern Ocean
ORGANIZATION(S)
Scripps Institution of
Oceanography, University
of California–San Diego
LOCATION(S)
La Jolla, California
MENTOR(S)
Sarah Gille, Professor,
Scripps Institution of
Oceanography;
Lynne Talley, Professor,
Scripps Institution of
Oceanography;
Matt Mazloff,
Associate Researcher,
Scripps Institution of
Oceanography;
Channing Prend,
Ph.D. candidate,
Scripps Institution
of Oceanography
I studied the Maud Rise, a large seamount in
the Southern Ocean associated with strong
upwelling and weak stratification. Maud Rise
experiences rare polynya events during which
a hole forms in the seasonal sea ice above it,
the most recent of which occurred in 2016
and 2017. My goal was to determine how these
polynyas affect phytoplankton blooms near
Maud Rise by using the biogeochemical data
collected by the autonomous Argo floats that
circulate the region to estimate chlorophyll
and concentrations of particulate organic
carbon. I used Python to analyze the relevant
float data in conjunction with satellite sea-ice
and reanalysis data. This allowed my group
to develop hypotheses linking the two recent
polynyas to observed changes in phytoplankton
bloom timing, size and vertical structure. During
my research, I learned a lot about Python data
analysis and data visualization tools, as well as
about oceanography. This internship was a very
positive research experience and showed me
that I would like to be involved in science as a
computer science concentrator.
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