Undergraduate Student
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences

Research interests: Wetland carbon cycling

Biography
I am a fourth-year Earth Science major at the University of California Santa Cruz. I am originally from Tijuana – San Diego border section, where I volunteered at the Tijuana River National Research Reserve and found my love for wetlands. My goal is to understand carbon sequestration and other biogeochemistry processes in-depth.

Research
I am studying the alkalinity release from sediments since this process can play an important role in the carbonate dynamics in wetlands, lowering the pCO2 of seawater and hence increasing the CO2 uptake from the atmosphere. I aim to obtain quantitative information on subsurface processes that control coastal wetland C dynamics and quantify net C sequestration across a range of representative wetlands.

To study subsurface alkalinity dynamics more quantitatively, pore water alkalinity concentrations will be measured at three study sites: a restored wetland, an undisturbed wetland, and a tidally restricted wetland. I aim to determine alkalinity and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) using pore water extracted using anaerobic rhizons. I expect our data to indicate which processes control alkalinity in pore waters (e.g., tidal influence, microbial mediation). This information can be used to investigate the role of alkalinity in subsurface carbon cycling.