Science in Action: Dispatches from the Field

Future Rivers Trainee Sage Fox and PI David Butman recently traveled to Chile to support Sage’s research estimating the export of nutrient and ions to the coastal ocean of Patagonia. With collages from Centro de Investigación en Ecosistemas de la Patagonia (CIEP), and the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, they drove from Puerto Montt to Coyhaique meeting with citizen science collaborators that were responsible for weekly water quality sampling. This data and the calculated coastal fluxes are the first ever made for this region and will be used as the baseline conditions for what could become the first nationally supported water quality monitoring program in Patagonia. These rivers represent some of the most pristine systems remaining in the world.