“I wish I had done SURF every year — hands-on experience is the best way to learn.”

Research fellow: Aidan Barry
Hometown: North Hampton, NH
School: University of Rhode Island
Major: Biology
Mentors: Danielle Perry, Carol Thorber, Serena Moseman-Valtierra
Project: Impacts of macroalgal accumulation on salt marsh environments

URI senior Aidan Barry’s summer research project puts him exactly where he wants to be — in the field and on the coast.

“I can’t believe this can be made into a career — it’s too much fun,” Barry grins as he helps collect data one morning, bayside at the URI Marine Science Research Facility. “It seems unreal. I love being out in the field every day.”

As a 2016 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow (SURF) with RI NSF EPSCoR, Barry is helping investigate the response of salt marsh plants, in particular Spartina alterniflora, to the accumulation of macroalgal or large seaweed blooms. With the onset of climate change, scientists expect to see an increase of the blooms, which cause serious economic and ecological problems for coastal communities.

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9th Annual RI SURF Conference to showcase undergraduate research

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Salt marshes play a critical role in maintaining coastal health, and one of the key questions is how the seaweed blooms might impact the function of the natural ecosystem. S. alterniflora, a tall, haylike grass that grows in abundance along the marsh shoreline, filters pollutants and nutrients, absorbing and emitting gasses.

For Barry, the SURF project offers the perfect opportunity: “I want to go to grad school and, with SURF, I knew I could get experience and be in the field every day, doing what I love.”

The work involves monitoring plants in the salt marsh, working in the lab, helping maintain the experiment, and analyzing data. Barry says the experience is developing his field and lab skills as well as expanding his knowledge base through literature reviews.

Having grown up on the coast, he explains that he always wanted to be a marine-based scientist, initially leaning toward marine biology, but finding he wasn’t interested in the open ocean.

“I figured out the coast is where I like to be,” he says. “This is the best of both worlds — water and terrestrial — there are so many crazy interactions happening constantly. I definitely want to do something wetlands related. What I’m doing now, working with vegetation and algae, would be fun. I wish I had done SURF every year — hands-on experience is the best way to learn.”

Story and photo by Amy Dunkle