Bethany Neilson, better known as Beth, gathered a team of 25 undergraduates, graduate students and Ph.D. candidates from universities throughout the state in Logan to collaborate on a scientific snapshot of the Logan River.
The group broke off into teams and traveled up the mountain, where they waded into the water to set up their delicate equipment. The researchers were giddy with excitement, it wasn’t every day they got to do field work.
One thing was certain, Beth was fearless when it came to jumping in the water. She jumped in and helped her colleagues set up the equipment. They gathered water samples in glass jars and used an electric drill as a pump to filter the them.
Beth, an environmental engineer from Utah State University, explained the purpose of synaptic sampling.
“The biggest question that we are trying to answer is how much groundwater is influencing these streams, and how are these streams influencing groundwater?" Beth said. "A lot of people don’t see our streams as something that interfaces with groundwater. They look at them as two separate resources, but in reality they exchange water pretty regularly.”
She said that the snapshot sampling of the Logan River was just one small element of a much bigger research project known as iUtah.
Michelle Baker, the director of the iUtah, explained that the project is a collaboration of many different sciences to investigate water use in Utah.
“iUtah is a project that is funded by the national science foundation,” she said. “Our mission is to support science and education for Utah’s water future.”
Michelle said that one of the main goals is to position Utah for sustainable economic growth. iUtah finished up in its third of five years of operation and it investigates water use through sociology, biology, and engineering.