Aerial view of the east end of carrot island with a boat going down the creek

Field site students conduct research at the Rachel Carson Reserve in Beaufort for their capstone project.
By Rachel Geyer, senior at UNC Chapel Hill and field site student at UNC-CH Institute of Marine Sciences Fall 2024 semester

Research was conducted on the east end of Carrot Island, one of five islands that make up the Rachel Carson Reserve. Experiments were conducted in the maritime forest, salt marsh, shorelines and on the living shoreline structure. (Photograph by Josh Himmelstein)

On December 11th, the 2024 Morehead City Field Site students shared their semester-long journey of conducting research at the Rachel Carson site of the N.C. National Estuarine Research Reserve, a natural wonder safeguarding the historic community of Beaufort.  

Three people squatting over an oyster bed with water in the background
Kate Leonard, Caroline Maxon and Avalon Rosenberger, senior undergraduate field site students, are dividing a sediment core on the beach of Carrot Island. They are looking for peat, a carbon rich layer of sediment they can use to quantify the carbon stock of the island.  

Every fall, the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences invites a group of undergraduate students to spend the semester immersed in the “living classrooms” of the North Carolina coast. In addition to learning about the state’s estuaries, marshes and beaches, the students tackle real-world problems with a “capstone project,” a collaborative, team-based research effort. This semester, their client was the Rachel Carson Reserve.  

Under the guidance of Dr. Nathan Hall, Dr. Niels Lindquist and Ph.D. candidate Nadya Guttierez, the students conducted experiments on the east end of Carrot Island, one of the five islands that make up the Rachel Carson Reserve (reserve). Their goal was to assess how the reserve responds to change. Drawing on their unique interests, the students dove into seven sub-topics:  

  • Shoreline change
  • Terrestrial and blue carbon
  • Groundwater
  • Thin layer application of sediment
  • The role of horses in vegetative dispersal
  • Birds on a living shoreline, and
  • Oysters on eroding shorelines.
Woman smiling while knee deep in marsh mud
Caroline Maxon, a senior undergraduate field site student, knee deep in mud at a Carrot Island salt marsh. Maxon and her group mates, Kate Leonard and Avalon Rosenberger quantified the carbon stock of the island using sediment cores.  

September through October was spent scooping horse feces, sinking into marsh muck and exploring the ragged walls of the living shoreline. Every week, the students struggled with the same challenge as the reserve: rising sea levels. This September marked the highest monthly mean sea level recorded at the Beaufort NOAA station (Station ID: 8656483). As a result, experiments washed away, and, at times, fieldwork was impossible due to inundation.  

Woman squatting in maritime forest with gloves to pick up samples
Molly Zolotor, a junior undergraduate field site student, collecting horse feces from a maritime forest. She and Nora Wood, another junior undergraduate field site student, tested the viability of saltmarsh cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) seeds found in the feces to determine if horses could facilitate the dispersal of marsh vegetation.  

Despite these challenges and their ambitious workloads, the students persevered. Field site students Amanda Gillelead and Adrian Smith spearheaded the final presentation and report which was delivered to reserve staff. This year's Morehead City Field Site group has succeeded in providing valuable insight for managing the reserve in the face of changing climate and human development. Furthermore, these young marine scientists gained hands-on experience in scientific research and a deeper appreciation for the natural wonders offered by the N.C. coast.  

 

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