Environmental Internship Program - 2019 Booklet

Ezra Zimble ’22
UNDECLARED
CLIMATE CHANGE AND
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
PROJECT TITLE
Examining Biological
Nitrogen Fixation Rates in
New Jersey Forest
Samples*
ORGANIZATION(S)
Zhang Lab, Department
of Geosciences,
Princeton University
LOCATION(S)
Princeton, New Jersey
MENTOR(S)
Xinning Zhang, Assistant
Professor of Geosciences
and the Princeton
Environmental Institute;
Romain Darnajoux,
Postdoctoral Research
Fellow, Geosciences
I studied nitrogen fixation in New Jersey
forests as an extension of research conducted in
Canada by my supervisor, Romain Darnajoux.
We applied his work in boreal forests to New
Jersey's temperate forests by investigating
whether nitrogen-fixing bacteria were present
and, if so, the conditions that favor nitrogen
fixation. My jobs included collecting samples
such as mosses, tree bark and soil, then
analyzing them in the lab. Over the course of
the internship, I gained proficiency in using lab
equipment such as gas chromatography and
learned about the safe handling of chemicals.
Additionally, my supervisor and I discussed
experimental design at length before our weekly
experiments and proper data analysis afterward.
I plan to incorporate the sensitivity to detail in
experiment design and analysis I learned to my
future research at Princeton.
* This internship is connected to the PEI Climate
and Energy Grand Challenges project, “Controls on
Alternative N 2
Fixation.”
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