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Each summer University of Vermont (����̽̽) students put their learning and experience from their coursework to use in jobs and internships. The Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources encourages every student to pursue an internship during their time at ����̽̽, with the help of our Career Coaches and Internships Coordinator. This year, over 30 Rubenstein School students were placed in internships through our Perennial Internship Program, which is just one of many ways students can find internship opportunities in Vermont and beyond. Internships can help students determine what they want (or don’t want) the next step in their career to look like. That was the case for Deniz Dutton ’23, whose internship last summer helped her determine her path for continued study.

In the summer of 2022, Deniz conducted ecological research with the Applied Silviculture and Forest Ecology Lab, led by Professor Tony D’Amato. Based out of the George D. Aiken Forestry Sciences Laboratory, she worked closely with Rubenstein School PhD student Paulina Murray and laboratory staff. The research team investigated the impact that timber harvesting practices of increasing severity have on the decomposition of deadwood, such as fallen branches and trees. Deniz used many metrics to quantify decomposition including mass loss, carbon and nitrogen ratios, fungal DNA, and potential fungal enzyme activity. Wood stakes made of sugar maple and white pine served as natural deadwood proxies, which the researchers analyzed after five years in the field, coinciding with five-year-old timber harvests.

Deniz spent most of her time processing these wood stakes in the lab. She used a hand drill to extract wood shavings, which she pulverized for analyses. She then used a state-of-the-art elemental analyzer to determine carbon and nitrogen ratios of the shavings. Deniz also conducted a DNA extraction and enzyme assay. 

"My research mentor, Paulina, taught me everything she knew about these lab techniques,” said Deniz. “It was a supportive, collaborative environment where I truly felt I could grow as a scientist.”

Early in the internship, Deniz became table saw certified and used her new skill to cut six-foot planks into new wood stakes, which were deployed in the Bartlett Experimental Forest in New Hampshire. The trip to Bartlett immediately followed a day of collecting old stakes at Second College Grant in Eroll, New Hampshire—two and a half hours away. These two days made up the bulk of Deniz’s time in the field and were as rewarding as they were exhausting.

"I learned that field work can be tedious, messy, and unorganized, and that an improvisational mindset is necessary," Deniz said. "For example, once we got to Bartlett, we realized that we had forgotten the metal stakes that secure the wood stakes to the ground back at the lab, so we improvised. We bent the metal stem of the plot flags into a zig-zag shape. It worked well enough to hold the stakes in place until someone could come back later to fix the error."

Deniz and her fellow researchers used drills to extract wood shavings from the sample stakes for analysis in the lab.

Deniz had the opportunity to see other forms of research in action during her field work. Colleagues from the Forestry Sciences lab joined Deniz and Paulina at the Bartlett Experimental Forest to work on a cold air pooling project, a study of temperature inversions in mountain valleys and their role as microrefugia under climate change. 

"Together we were able to co-support one another’s research and have fun doing it," Deniz said. "We shared plots and helped set up one another’s materials as though we were all one big team. As someone who values collaboration when it comes to creating knowledge that can benefit the environment and humanity, this experience reinforced my desire to pursue a career in the environmental sciences.” 

Deniz took her research a step further during the fall of 2022 and pursued an independent study on the correlation between deadwood decomposition and soil carbon accrual. Deniz was motivated by an assumption she had learned about within the timber industry that decomposing wood contributes harmful greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. This assumption has been used as a justification for the use of leftover logging debris for biomass-powered electricity generation.

“I hoped to find evidence that decaying wood contributes carbon to the soil, sequestering it away,” explained Deniz. “The experiment was an exercise of curiosity to see what I would find, and while it was limited in sample size and the carbon analysis techniques available to me, it gave me a taste of what it means to be a scientist.”

Deniz was able to apply what she learned from her classes, mentor, and supervisor about statistical analysis and scientific writing to her own independent project. This research experience helped Deniz discover her academic passion for soil ecology and nutrient cycling and gave her the opportunity to learn highly specialized skills used in these fields of study.

Deniz credits her admission to graduate school to her internship and continued research. She graduated from the Rubenstein School in May 2023 and will attend McGill University in the fall to pursue her Master of Science, for which she will write a thesis on the interactive effects of precipitation and cover-crop diversity on soil microbial communities.

“I am incredibly excited to live in Montreal, Quebec and contribute to research on the impacts that climate change will have on plant-soil microbe relationships and agriculture as a whole,” said Deniz. “I want to thank my mentor Paulina and the entire Forestry Sciences lab community for creating such a warm and welcoming environment that made me enjoy coming to work every day.”

Deniz also acknowledged lab staff members Karin Rand and Marie English for making things run smoothly in the lab and for sharing their advice and expertise, especially in regard to applying to graduate school.