We are excited to partner with UC Davis and offer internship opportunities for students in the Wildlife and Conservation Biology program! Make a meaningful impact in restoring aquatic ecosystems through collecting and measuring biomass data, conducting literature review where insufficient specimens are available, and comparing biomass values. These internships are anticipated to be 8-10 hours per week for 8 weeks and begin mid to late August. Application deadline is June 30th.

HOW TO APPLY: https://fishsciences.isolvedhire.com/jobs/

BACKGROUND: The macroinvertebrate community is an important component of aquatic ecosystems and macroinvertebrate sampling is a common monitoring method employed by Cramer Fish Sciences (CFS) to assess functionality and success of our riverine habitat restoration projects. Macroinvertebrates are sensitive to environmental change and have been used by many studies to assess ecosystem health and restoration success. Invertebrate communities can provide an indication of habitat productivity. Additionally, juvenile salmonids primarily feed on a variety of drift macroinvertebrates and sampling this community can demonstrate resource availability for our most common focal species.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: Biomass is one of the most common metrics assessed for invertebrate samples. Our current protocols call for technicians to enumerate organisms by taxon, life stage, and size class with a sample and this information is used to estimate total sample biomass using standard biomass values for organisms. However, in many cases, biomasses are not available for a specific combination of taxon, life stage, and size class and we are required to substitute values from comparable taxa. Additionally, it would be helpful to measure expected accuracy of sample biomass estimates compared to direct sample weighing, which is more accurate but destructive.

PROJECT GOALS: To contribute to a more complete and accurate table of biomass values and investigate accuracy of biomass estimates.

POTENTIAL TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Collect data on missing biomass values - collect and weigh representative specimens of missing taxa.

Literature review - where insufficient specimens are available, review peer-reviewed literature for biomass estimates.

Compare estimated and actual biomass values - collect dry biomass values for whole samples and compare to values calculated through existing estimation protocol to contribute to a growing dataset on accuracy and precision of biomass estimation.

ABOUT CRAMER FISH SCIENCES: We are a fisheries research consulting firm serving throughout the Pacific States and Idaho. We are a growing, employee-owned company whose mission is to rigorously apply the scientific method to afford our clients innovative, scientifically robust solutions to address a variety of fisheries and environmental challenges. Our team achieves this through effective and unbiased data collection, insightful analysis and interpretation, and clear communications and publication of results in scientific journals.