Stephen Carlson ’19

Major

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Project Title

Variability in Oxygen Minimum Zones

Presentation Link

View Stephen's Presentation

The goal of my research was to quantify natural O2 variability in Oxygen Minimum Zones (OMZs). OMZs are areas in the ocean where oxygen levels are at their lowest. Organisms can become stressed and ultimately die if oxygen is too low for too long. Global warming is bringing an expansion of OMZs, which limits habitat range for fish and negatively affects fisheries. My partner and I graphed oxygen levels in the ocean over the past 50 years, focusing on the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. We looked at factors that contribute to oxygen levels in the water, such as salinity, temperature, wind and currents. I perfected skills throughout the eight weeks, such as coding in MATLAB, and gained a general knowledge about climate change. Both will be extremely helpful in my career search. The oceanography work I did has also prepared me for my upcoming junior and senior independent-research projects.



Internship Year

2017

Project Category

Climate and Oceans

Organization(s)

Department of Geosciences, Princeton University

Mentor(s)

Laure Resplandy, Assistant Professor of Geosciences and the Princeton Environmental Institute