Perseverance in P H O T O S B Y A LY S S A L A F A R O
In spring 2019, UNC geographer Diego Riveros-Iregui received
a National Science Foundation Early Career Award to study carbon decomposition rates within the North Andean páramo, one of the most carbon-rich locations on the planet. The project is taking place in a wetland in the Cayambe Coca Ecological Reserve, a national park about 45 minutes outside of the Ecuadorian capital of Quito. In summer 2019, Riveros-Iregui brought a team of students to the reserve to construct and monitor a series of experiments to measure carbon, water flow, and solutes like chlorophyll and salt. He planned to bring similar groups to record the measurements over the following three summers to collect enough data for analysis. Liz Farquhar and Tessa Davis are part of Riveros-Iregui’s most recent cohort to go to Ecuador, along with Ph.D. student Kriddie Whitmore. Despite facing numerous obstacles, including cancellation of the 2020 trip due to the pandemic, they finally made it to the field site in the Andes Mountains this past summer, spending two months there as research technicians. They share how the pandemic shaped their research, their senior year and their lives — for both the bad and the good.
Searching for carbon, finding resilience BY L IZ FA R Q U H A R
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“ id I just hear you talking about soil samples?” We pause our morning chatter and turn toward the man at a nearby table. It turns out he’s an environmental engineer, and he’s really curious about the three young women talking about carbon cycling and streams and scientific equipment over breakfast. This has been our morning ritual for the past six weeks: We wake up, get ready for a long day in the field, and while we sip coffee and eat papaya, we plan the science we are going to conduct. We do this at Casa Magnolia, a cozy, German-influenced bed-and-breakfast in Cumbayá, Ecuador. Oftentimes, other patrons overhear our conversations and ask us about what we are doing. So we give them the elevator continued
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Liz Farquhar holds up a Garmin GPS unit, which she uses to identity the locations of field sites within the Cayambe Coca Ecological Reserve. • Farquhar, Tessa Davis, Kriddie Whitmore and Segundo Chimbolema log data from a carbon dioxide monitoring station. • The North Andean páramo is rich with plant life — so much so that botanical researchers have called the region the fastest-evolving biodiversity hotspot on Earth.
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