With the sun beaming above them, four student researchers wade into a lake within the Lwengera River Valley — an area that rests between Tanzania’s East and West Usambara Mountains. The body of water is half the size of a football field, and it’s only when the cloudy brown reaches the students’ waists that they slow to a stop. From there, they select a spot to drive their core sampler, a tool used to extract material for analysis, into the sediment beneath them.
Holding the thin metal sampler upright, they then hammer it into the ground — prompting a plastic tube within the tool’s casing to fill with sediment. The trickiest part comes next. Because the valley’s swamps, lakes, and rivers are rich with clay, the muck is often reluctant to release the core sampler. It is through patience and collaboration (plus a tad of troubleshooting) that helps student researchers overcome this consistent hurdle.
From late-May through June, three Bryant undergrads and one Boston University alum have been conducting fieldwork throughout the Lwengera River Valley alongside Bryant University Biological and Biomedical Sciences Lecturer Robert Patalano ’08, Ph.D., and researchers from the Universities of Dar es Salaam and Dodoma and the Tanzanian Forestry Research Institute. Their work, officially known as the Ecological Resilience of Afromontane Forests (EcoRAFT) project, studies the long-term natural and human impacts to the Usambara’s biologically diverse ecosystems. Funded through a $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s International Research Experiences for Students program, one of EcoRAFT’s primary goals is to provide students with the opportunity to travel internationally and conduct scientific research abroad.
“International travel is exceptionally educational and allows people to step out of their comfort zones physically and culturally,” says Patalano. “Many students haven’t yet had the means or opportunity to do so.”
Ecological reconstruction
Hannah Kobbs ’27 says she felt like Indiana Jones when the group began fieldwork.
“We all got pretty muddy and there was a lot of trial and error, but once we got a good sample, that was a huge accomplishment.” explains Kobbs, who’s in Bryant’s 3+1 Accelerated Fourth Year MBA program. “It was cool to see the fieldwork side because I've never done a lot of research. Most of the time out there I was like, ‘How can I keep doing this?’”
Typically spending six hours a day engaging in research, students draw one water sample and up to two sediment samples from each survey site before labeling the one- to five-foot extractions and arranging them amongst their other inventory. Once finished, they record observations — such as surrounding plant life, nearby homesteads, and wildlife — before hopping in their car and driving what could be minutes, or hours, to their next survey location.
All but one of their samples are collected from the Lwengera River Valley — an intentional decision, notes Biology major Peyton Barron ’29.
“The mountains’ runoff gathers here, and the thought process is the runoff would take organic matter from the leaves and trees into the rivers and swamps and bury it in the sediment. This organic matter would contain lipids and, through different lab processes, we could split the samples up and use carbon dating to see how many thousands of years ago they were from,” says Barron, noting that understanding the area’s ecological timeline could help inform the region’s environmental and climatic future; these findings, in turn, could provide Tanzanian leaders in agriculture and industry with valuable insight that could aid future decision-making on forest management.
Sediment secrets
Leaving Tanzania for Jena, Germany, student researchers spend two weeks at the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology learning and practicing lab techniques on local core samples. With their Tanzanian samples being shipped to Bryant’s research labs, the goal is to transfer the technical skills they’re developing to the Bryant lab.
"We learned how to measure and section the soil core, freeze dry each sample to remove moisture, and then extract the biomarkers," notes Marisa DeJesus, the Boston University alum. "Using this data, we determined the ages of different layers of the core."
The institute is a hub of knowledge for students. Surrounded by researchers from around the globe, the group chats with experts to understand more about their careers and how they got to where they are today.
“A lot of the time, they would start in one area of science and would end up doing what they are now. It was not really a linear pathway,” Barron says.
They even received tips from scholars whose research aligned with their own. For instance, the group ended up meeting Yoshi Maezumi, Ph.D., a senior scientist in Max Plank’s Department of Coevolution Land Use and Urbanization, who discussed her core sampling process and gave students suggestions for future approaches.
Expanding one’s world
Whether they were trying new food with Tanzania scientists, playing soccer with kids in local villages, or exploring bustling Jena, the students built connections that were just as impactful as the research they were conducting.
“Living in foreign countries for a while and being there with locals helps you see and understand how different cultures live and helps you work on your intercultural communication, develop social skills, and become a more well-rounded individual,” says Thomas Morton ’27, an Information Systems major.
Morton says he’s always been curious about science but never had the opportunity to explore it, which is why this research experience stood out to him.
“I knew nothing about environmental science going into this, so this trip was a great opportunity for me to expand my horizons and become a more academically well-rounded student,” he says, noting that the experience has inspired him to continue working on scientific research.
Students will continue what they started in both Tanzania and Germany by working in Bryant’s analytical laboratory, starting this month. By analyzing various paleoenvironmental proxies, student researchers will try and decipher the Usambara’s ecological resiliency and vulnerability to long-term climate and human-related impacts.
“The next step will involve isolating and studying certain biological marker molecules, remains of past life that offer glimpses into Earth’s history, to learn more about the Usambara’s ancient climates and environments and the ways in which today’s impacts may upset forest resilience in the future,” shares Patalano.