Hailing from landlocked Colorado, the last thing Isabel Thornberry ’24 expected to dive headlong into at Haverford was oceanographic research.
However, summer opportunities like a research experience for undergraduates at Georgia Tech and a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fellowship program piqued and reinforced her budding interest in coastal and open ocean biogeochemistry. They also influenced her to pursue a thesis focused on better understanding the biological and chemical significance of oxygen minimum zones in our oceans.
Sandwiched between layers of water with higher oxygen concentration, the stratification of these zones allows them to persist for long periods of geologic time, according to NOAA. Though they are naturally occuring, oxygen minimum zones are of particular importance as the world contends with climate change. As earth gets warmer, scientists think that such zones will increase in number and scope worldwide.
“Oxygen is essential to sustaining life in the oceans, and my thesis research around understanding oxygen distributions can help build our knowledge of larger ocean dynamics both today and in the future,” the chemistry major and environmental studies minor says. “They are expected to continue expanding with climate change, and understanding their dynamics in space and over time is important for informing ocean models, fisheries, and key nutrient cycles.”
The resulting work, titled “Understanding the Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of the Eastern Tropical North Pacific Oxygen Minimum Zone using High-Resolution In-Situ Observations and a Gridded Global Data Product,” builds on her summer 2023 work with NOAA’s Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship program. Through it, Thornberry conducted research at the Pacific Marine Environmental Lab in Seattle with NOAA’s Global Observations of Biogeochemistry and Ocean Physics group. The fellowship, she says, provided her with the necessary support to analyze the vast and, at times, overwhelming world of oceanographic data.
“I learned about the latest technologies that help us better understand the world’s oceans,” she says. “I discovered that there is still so much to understand from the massive amounts of data these technologies collect, and my thesis allowed me to expand on this work.”
Thornberry says she arrived in Seattle eager to apply the interdisciplinary thinking and collaborative problem-solving she’d cultivated at Haverford to support NOAA’s efforts to enhance research and scientific communication through public outreach and policy development. At Haverford, she also received support from her thesis advisor, the William H. and Johanna A. Harris Professor in Environmental Studies and Chemistry Helen White, who encouraged Thornberry to think about how to present her work to less experienced audiences.
Thornberry says that completing a thesis that looked very different from her Haverford chemistry classes taught her to be resilient and persistent. She emerged on the other side, she says, “feeling like I’ve grown as a person and scientist.”
Thornberry says she will remain focused on biogeochemistry and the system-wide effects of climate change. She plans to work as a lab or field research technician for a few years before pursuing graduate studies.