Graduate student, Betsy Vance, is completing a master’s degree at the University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. She is interested in nutrient cycling within forest soils and how a forest soil system compares to other vegetative soil types. Previously she worked with the National Parks Service’s Inventory and Monitoring branch. There she received two “star” awards for her work managing soil samples and developing a soil sample database.
Her work for NARA investigates how nitrogen is retained and distributed within forest ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest. This information should contribute towards more effective and environmentally safe fertilization techniques to increase forest biomass productivity.
Supervisor: Rob Harrison