My name is Ronja Steinbach and I am an EPP/MSI class of 2021 scholar. I am a marine biology major, botany minor, and honors student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. This past summer I had the great privilege of doing my internship at the Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. My project focused on the fungi that live in association with alders (Alnus spp.) in the Kachemak Bay watersheds.
![The photo looks down on Ronja, who is bent over looking through thin roots just under the soil in front of a multi-trunked tree. Ferns and other woodland vegetation obscure the view of her. (Image credit: Kai Rains, Ph.D.) The photo looks down on Ronja, who is bent over looking through thin roots just under the soil in front of a multi-trunked tree. Ferns and other woodland vegetation obscure the view of her.](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_width_1275/public/2023-01/Steinbach_Morhpotyping.jpg?h=30cba4c7&itok=vPVeCYug)
Ronja Steinbach, a 2021 EPP/MSI scholar collecting alder (Alnus spp.) roots during her 2022 summer internship at the Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. (Image credit: Kai Rains, Ph.D.)