From a Flyer on a Board to the Marshes of Cocodrie: How One Tulanian Found Her Research Home

Malai Harrington did not find her way into ecohydrology research through a formal application or a faculty referral. She walked past a wooden board, saw a flyer that mentioned carbon, and sent an email.

"It said ‘carbon’ which caught me because I’m really interested in carbon. I emailed her, she told me to come by, and here we are." said Harrington, a rising senior studying Earth and Environmental Science with minors in Climate Change: Science and Practice, and French, along with a certificate in GIS.  

That email led Harrington to Dr. Annalisa Molini's lab in Tulane's School of Science and Engineering, where she now works alongside her PI and PhD candidate, Augustine Nwokoye, learning instrumentation and field methods in ecohydrology, the science of how ecosystems interact with hydrological processes like rainfall formation and runoff.

"I'm focusing on how climate is related to water use," Dr. Molini explained. "I'm particularly interested in how plants and the biosphere are transporting water from soils to the atmosphere. Plants, when they are transpirating, are also contributing to lower the temperature of our atmosphere. On top of that, they store carbon."

For Harrington, the draw was specifically the intersection of carbon and natural climate solutions. She had come to Tulane unsure of which disciplines within earth and environmental science would interest her. After a particularly interesting course about natural climate solutions, she was confident that the intersection between ecohydrology and a society’s interaction with anthropogenic climate change impacts would  When she saw Dr. Molini's lab was working with new and exciting field instrumentation and carbon, the fit seemed clear.

The work has taken her far beyond the classroom. In the spring, Harrington traveled with Dr. Molini's team to the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, known as LUMCON, in Cocodrie, Louisiana, to help install a new instrument called the Carbon Node. The instrument, deployed in a Spartina alterniflora tidal marsh near LUMCON's headquarters, uses a method called eddy covariance to measure in real time how much carbon and oxygen plants are producing, and how much water they are releasing into the atmosphere based on environmental conditions.

"This system is way cheaper and is easier to install and uninstall from the field," Dr. Molini noted.

That portability matters in Louisiana. The instrument needs to withstand years in a coastal wetland environment prone to tropical storms, and the ability to take it down quickly and reinstall it afterward is central to the project's design. Dr. Molini said the team hopes to collect three to five years of data, and the instrument is already sending readings to their team around the clock.

Harrington helped Dr. Kenneth Krauss, the LUMCON scientist overseeing the instrument on site, get it set up during her visit. She described the experience as a lesson in what field research actually looks like.

"I fell pretty deep in the mud, and it was cold and windy," she laughed. "I was up to my knees in mud, in the marsh...”

But that messiness, she said, was part of what the experience taught her. "I've learned that research isn't linear, and there isn't a perfect research experience. Being flexible, being optimistic, remaining motivated, when going out into the field and producing research has been something I've learned to keep in mind."

Back in the lab, Harrington has been working with her PI, Augustine, on the LI-COR 6800 photosynthesis system and learning MATLAB, building on coursework she completed in a prior semester. "For programs like MATLAB, you really have to dedicate a lot more time and energy to them to be able to learn them," she said. "It's been cool to solidify what I've learned in class  in a way that's more interesting and applicable to my interests."

Harrington's work in Dr. Molini's lab is supported in part by connections through the Mississippi River Delta Transition Initiative, a program sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences’ Gulf Research Program that funds research to multiple colleges and universities along the Gulf South, one being Tulane. It was through that network that Harrington was able to meet Dr. Krauss, the LUMCON team, and many other researchers working on issues that plague our coast

She credits the mentorship environment in Dr. Molini's lab as central to her growth. As a student and student-worker juggling multiple obligations, Harrington said the team's flexibility and patience made a real difference. "Being cognizant of my schedule, and just allowing me to join them," she said. "They were willing to explain things in depth, so I actually understood them, and they let me use one of the instruments." She was also given time on an RTK instrument in the field to collect a small amount of data on her own.

The experience has sharpened her sense of direction. Harrington said she is actively thinking about graduate programs, with Tulane's own Earth and Environmental Science department and the River and Coastal Science and Engineering program among her top choices. She is also considering PhD programs and, further down the road, environmental or water  law.

She wants to stay in the Gulf region. "The science that I'm learning here, and the culture, I really appreciate it, and I'm extremely interested in it," she said.