After 12 years living abroad, I am finally coming back home! I was born and raised in Puerto Rico but left in 2012 to complete graduate studies at the University of New Hampshire, USA and in 2020 I moved to Montreal in Quebec, Canada for a postdoctoral fellowship. My life outside of Puerto Rico had been centered around academic and professional development where my research focused on aquatic ecosystems (rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs) and how the landscape influences the biological and chemical processes in these bodies of water.
During my time away, I rarely saw myself coming back to Puerto Rico as opportunities in environmental science careers were limited. But this changed when I saw the advertisement through the Hispanic Access Foundation for the position of Hydrologist at the International Institute of Tropical Forestry (IITF), one of the research institutes within the US Forest Service (USFS), where I would join as intern in the Resource Assistant Program (RAP). I quickly applied for the position, shortly after I was interviewed, and a position was offered that I accepted without a second thought. This was the opportunity to return home in a capacity to develop a new professional chapter and return to my roots.
As a hydrologist I will be working with a diversity if aquatic related datasets from the Luquillo Experimental Forest within El Yunque National Forest. These datasets have been compiled and monitored by IITF, and often are long-term data starting in the 1980’s or earlier! These data records consist of stream discharge (volume of water moving through streams), rain volume and chemistry, throughfall (rainwater that falls through the forest and reaches forest floor) volume and chemistry, and different stream and chemistry parameters. I will also be able to collaborate with other members of IITF as well as propose and develop new methods, ideas, and projects.
It has been a month since I joined IITF but already feels as I have been a long-time employee. It has been great meeting all the different members of IITF from field technicians, librarians, principal investigators and researchers, current and past RAP interns, and many others. I have also had the opportunity to visit some of the field sites from which I will be using the long-term data. Hiking through the tropical forest was a quick reminder on how hot, steep, and slippery some of the trails can be, very different to boat sampling in boreal reservoirs I had been doing for the past four years. It was also a reminder of the beauty within forests that is only seen in these tropical settings. Although I am just starting at IITF, I am sure this is the start of many more amazing things to come.