The Arequipa Nexus Institute is collaborating with the Purdue Discovery Park Undergraduate Research Internship (DURI) program to engage students in sustainable agriculture and soils research in southern Peru. In this program, one of three being led by Nexus teams this summer, Purdue undergraduate students are participating in five projects with faculty and students from our partner university: La Universidad Nacional de San Augustin (UNSA).

Objectives: The goal of this DURI program is to expose students to soil biogeochemistry and agricultural research in Arequipa, Peru, and the diverse material sampling and laboratory methods used to evaluate soil health. During the program, students are learning about soil evolution and contamination threats to agricultural productivity. They are also discussing research design and learning the collaborative process with UNSA researchers, who are supervising students within the different projects: soil agriculture biogeochemical mapping with GIS; soil temperature, moisture and gas sensor networks; soil biogeochemistry and evolution along an irrigation chronosequence; soil contamination assessment of heavy metals; and soil-plant-microbial interactions in heavy metal contaminated agricultural lands.  Students are also attending landscape biogeochemistry tours with Purdue and UNSA faculty; working at the UNSA research station in El Pedregal; exploring the upper Colca Canyon watershed to learn about traditional terrace agriculture; and exploring an area of organic farming just outside of Arequipa. At the end of the program, participants will participate in a a poster presentation of their main findings from the 10 weeks program.

Faculty Mentors: The lead faculty mentor for this program is Dr. Tim Filley,  professor in Purdue’s Departments of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) and  Agronomy (AGRY), Director of Purdue'd Center for the Enviornment, and Co-Director of the Arequipa Nexus Institute.  The primary program contact is Dr. Erika Foster, a postdoctoral researcher in the Arequipa Nexus Institute.

UNSA Collaborators:  UNSA collaborators include Dr. Juan Lopa Bolivar, a professor in UNSA’s Chemistry Department and Martin Villalta Soto, a Professor in UNSA’s Agronomy Department.