102 Research Reflection by Makayla Patrick

Faculty Mentor: Jon Wang (School of Biological Sciences, University of Utah)

This semester, my undergraduate career is coming to a close, and I’m incredibly grateful for all of the research opportunities I’ve had the chance to explore over the past year. My project began as a Wilkes Scholar proposal in which I aimed to study the effects of deforestation on Salt Lake City. The idea was sparked after learning that the Oquirrh Mountains were once relatively forested before industrial activity swept into the valley and the trees were cleared. I couldn’t help but wonder how such a dramatic change might have affected not just the area’s biodiversity, but also the local climate of the Salt Lake Valley.

I’m double majoring in Atmospheric Science and Biology. While those subjects are clearly connected from an ecological standpoint, it’s been difficult to find research projects that truly integrate both disciplines to answer questions like the one I had about the deforestation of the Oquirrhs.

While taking a course from Dr. Marysa Lague in the Atmospheric Sciences department, I learned that her research centers around running climate models. She had even previously modeled how total deforestation can impact climate. I knew I had found someone who could help me explore my questions. Together, we created a Wilkes Scholar proposal and began a project that compared NEON data with a small-scale climate model run. This gave me my first taste of the power of integrating two disciplines to tackle a broader, more complex problem.

I enjoyed the project so much that I reached out to Dr. Lague to continue working on it, this time expanding the scope beyond the Salt Lake Valley. For this new phase, I wanted to include real-world observations to support the model data, so we reached out to Dr. Jon Wang in the Biology department to see how we could incorporate remote sensing data into the project.

Joining Dr. Wang’s DYCE lab has been one of the most rewarding research experiences I’ve had. Everyone in the lab is incredibly supportive and always willing to help when a problem arises-which I’ve appreciated, especially since I’ve encountered many technical challenges while expanding this research. Although climate models involve a lot of coding, at the time we began the joint project, I didn’t have much experience with programming-particularly not with the specific packages required for our work. There have been several setbacks, from learning how to navigate the university’s CHPC system to figuring out how to analyze remote sensing data using QGIS.

It’s also been an exciting challenge to figure out how to make two very different systems work together. While the conceptual side of my project merges Atmospheric Science and Biology beautifully, the technical methods used in each field are quite distinct and have required creative workarounds to bring everything together. Over the last several months, I’ve developed many new technical skills that I know will be invaluable going forward-especially if I pursue interdisciplinary research in graduate school.

Thanks to my experience in the lab, I’ve had the opportunity to present my research at several conferences. These experiences have helped me significantly improve my science communication skills and find engaging ways to share my work. Interdisciplinary research is essential for addressing complex environmental challenges, and I’m deeply grateful to have had the chance to contribute to such work as an undergraduate.