Environmental Internship Program - 2022 Booklet

Spencer Koonin ’24
CHEMISTRY
Certificate: Environmental Studies
CLIMATE AND
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
PROJECT TITLE
What Controls the
Biodiversity and Function
of Cryptogam
Microbiomes?
ORGANIZATION(S)
Zhang Lab, Department of
Geosciences, Princeton
University
LOCATION(S)
Highlands, North
Carolina; Princeton, New
Jersey; Sherbrooke,
Québec, Canada
MENTOR(S)
Xinning Zhang, Assistant
Professor of Geosciences
and the High Meadows
Environmental Institute,
Romain Darnajoux,
Associate Research
Scholar, Geosciences
I studied plant life on a smaller scale by
investigating mosses, liverworts, and lichens.
Known as cryptogams, these small plants provide
necessary macronutrients like nitrogen to their
surroundings. We focused on a process known
as biological nitrogen fixation, where nitrogen
gas in the air around us is made available for
organisms to use. I collected specimens of moss
and lichen in the boreal forests of northern
Québec and the Appalachian Mountains of North
Carolina. These samples were selected in areas
with varying levels of deposited nutrients and
pollution from human activity. Back in the lab, I
analyzed the samples to investigate how nitrogen
and various metals influence biological nitrogen
fixation activity and nitrogenase enzymes, with
the goal of gaining a better understanding of
the nitrogen cycle. This internship introduced
me to the extraordinarily complex world of
cryptogams, which our world could not exist
without. My future can only benefit from the
invaluable knowledge I gained, in particular
the insight into how to create and address
meaningful biogeochemical research questions
about the world around me.
* This internship is connected to the HMEI
Biodiversity Grand Challenges project, “What
Controls the Biodiversity and Function of
Cryptogram Microbiomes.”
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