Cover photo: 70-foot waterfall 130-feet underground 0-9 Well cave north of Ozona. ©2023 Erich Ross Schlegel.
The Texas Water Journal has published a new article in Volume 17, a program review titled “From Source to Sea: Case Study of a Watershed-Scale, Transdisciplinary Field Program in Coastal and Marine Graduate Education,” by Audrey R. Douglas, Yusuf Azeez, Elizabeth DiBona, Makayla Guinn, Evalynn Jundt, Nigel Lascelles, Skylar Meehan, Mohamed Mousa, Ahmed Omar, Hailey Santa Ana, Madison Riba, Youwen Wang, Miranda White, Scott Burg and Dorina Murgulet.
The National Science Foundation-funded Research Traineeship on Stakeholder-Guided Environmental Science (STAGES) program at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi aims to improve interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborative science and communication through a combination of hands-on, experiential training and coursework for graduate students.
According to the authors, a core feature of this program is the Headwaters to the Ocean (H2O) field trip, which immerses students in practical interdisciplinary research and data collection within the Nueces River watershed for three days. The field trip spans the river from its headwaters near Uvalde, Texas, to Nueces Bay, with students studying various environmental indicators such as water chemistry, air pollution, hydrogeologic setting, and microplastics to assess the impacts of human activities.
Through these experiences, STAGES seeks to build a common language among participants from various scientific backgrounds, ultimately fostering more effective research collaborations and preparing students for complex environmental science challenges. The STAGES program also offers recommendations for improving interdisciplinary teamwork, enhancing communication, and refining project planning, making it a model for training future scientists in integrated environmental science approaches.
Read the full article to learn more.
The journal — an online, peer-reviewed journal published by the nonprofit, the Texas Water Journal, in cooperation with the Texas Water Resources Institute, a unit of Texas A&M AgriLife Research that brings together expertise from across the Texas A&M University System, the Bureau of Economic Geology in the Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin, and the Water and the Environment Research Center in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering at Texas Tech University — publishes papers as they are completed.
It is devoted to the timely consideration of Texas water resources management, research and policy issues from a multidisciplinary perspective that integrates science, engineering, law, planning and other disciplines. It also provides updates on key state legislation and policy changes by Texas administrative agencies.
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