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CLIME Application will be available November 1st

2026 CLIME Internship Opportunities are listed below.
Internships will generally be 8 weeks long and occur June 15 – August 7, 2026

Our program is geared towards rising college seniors (or those that have recently graduated) from any 4-year college/university in the United States. We can accept US citizens, permanent residents, undocumented students, refugees, tribal citizens exercising their rights under the Dawes Act, and many folks who call the United States home. Unfortunately we are unable to accept students who would require a student visa to study within the United States.

Questions? Feel free to reach out to us via our contact page. We look forward to hearing from you!

Native Seed Banking for Coastal Habitat Restoration

Location: Younger Lagoon Reserve, UC Santa Cruz
Mentor: Elizabeth Howard, Younger Lagoon Reserve Manager
Available Internships: 2

Project Background:
Are you passionate about native plants? Then join our native seed bank project this summer! Younger Lagoon Reserve (YLR) is part of the UC Natural Reserve System and used as an outdoor classroom and living laboratory for university-level research, teaching, and public service. Prior to their incorporation into Younger Lagoon Reserve, the land was farmed for over 50 years. YLR staff and student interns are working to restore this former agricultural land to native grassland, scrub and seasonal wetland habitats. Restoration efforts require extensive weed control, propagation of native plants from seeds and cuttings, planting, and maintenance efforts (similar to farming or gardening, but in a wild-land setting). This project is ideal for a student with a background in botany and will support native seed banking efforts at the reserve including: seed collection and processing, viability testing, inventory management, and storage.

Intern Duties:
As an intern for this project, you will play a key role in maintaining our native seed bank. Your primary duties will include seed processing, inventory management, and preparing seeds for long-term storage. You will also collect native seeds from botanically rich sites along the central coast and conduct viability testing of seeds in the greenhouse.

Throughout the internship, you will receive training and mentorship in all aspects of native seed banking including: best practices for field collection of native seeds, the use of specialized seed processing equipment such as sieves and seed blowers, viability testing, inventory database management, and long-term seed storage, making this an excellent opportunity to develop valuable skills for a career in plant ecology or native habitat restoration.

Intern Qualifications:
Enthusiasm for native plants and coastal habitat restoration.
Prior coursework in botany.
Experience with greenhouse work including phytosanitary methods is a plus.
Comfortable spending full days collecting seeds at off-site locations – including sites with ticks, poison oak, and wind.
Experience with Excel or Google Sheets software.
Experience with or willingness to learn GIS tools such as ArcGIS Field Maps.
Strong organizational skills and attention to detail for managing and formatting data.
Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a professional environment.

Santa Cruz Puma Project

Location: Wilmers Lab, UC Santa Cruz
Mentor: Luis Rouzaud, PhD Candidate
Available Internships: 1or 2

Project Background:
The Santa Cruz Puma Project is an ongoing research project tracking the health and population of mountain lions (aka pumas or cougars) in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Central California. Our goal is to better understand how mountain lions move and persist across fragmented landscapes dominated by human activity. We utilize both field-based and lab-based techniques to characterize puma behavior, movement, and overall survival with the aim of improving coexistence between humans and this keystone species.

Intern Duties:
Interns for the project will spend 2 to 3 days in the field per week investigating sites recently visited by mountain lions. Tasks include deploying motion-sensor camera traps, inspecting den sites, identifying prey remains, and using radio telemetry to monitor kitten survival. Interns will perform this work under the supervision of the lab’s field biologist.

Lab-based work involves processing and analyzing the data collected by the project. Interns will spend the remaining 2 to 3 days of the week in the office, tagging camera trap imagery, using GIS to generate movement maps, and analyzing puma behaviors using bioacoustics to train computer models. Interns can expect to devise a final project for their internship.

Intern Qualifications:
Interns should  be comfortable performing physical activity in the field 2 to 3 times a week. This includes hiking off-trail through steep or difficult terrain, exposure to poison oak, and harsh weather conditions.

Using Genomics to Investigate a Century of Evolutionary Change in Philippine Fishes

Location: Global Change Research Group, UC Santa Cruz
Mentors: Marianne Dehasque, PostDoc; Mikaela Salvador, PhD Student; Malin Pinsky, Professor
Available Internships: 1or 2

Project Background:
Natural history collections represent a rich source of genetic information. They can be used to address fundamental biological processes, to study biodiversity in changing environments, and to provide important insights for conservation. The Smithsonian Institution hosts a diverse collection of thousands of Philippine fishes from the Albatross expedition that occurred between 1907 and 1910. These fishes were stored in sugar cane distillate (effectively, high-proof rum) and have remained suitable for whole-genome sequencing.

The Albatross Re-Collection Project (formerly known as the Philippines PIRE project) has re-collected over twenty species of these fishes from the same sampling sites between 2018 and 2022, providing a rare and invaluable opportunity to understand whether or not these fishes have evolved to cope with changing ocean conditions over the past century. This NSF-funded research project is an international and collaborative partnership between American universities (University of California Santa Cruz, Texas A&M University, Old Dominion University), the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, and institutions in the Philippines (Silliman University, University of the Philippines Diliman, and the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute).

In this project, we seek to understand key evolutionary questions relevant to conservation:
How has the genetic diversity of marine fishes in the Philippines been altered over the past century?
Are genomic indicators of evolutionary adaptation and rescue present in these fishes, and if so, which genomic loci and architecture are involved?

Intern Duties:
Intern duties consist of bioinformatically analyzing DNA sequencing from historical collections and contemporary specimens to address questions about changes in genetic diversity, population size changes, and selection across space and through time. Students will gain experience in the fast-growing fields of museomics and conservation genomics by learning bioinformatics, scripting in R/Python/Bash programming language, and working on high-performance compute clusters (HPC).

Intern Qualifications:
Experience with Bash command line, scripting in R/Python/Bash, and bioinformatics, or a willingness to learn these skills is desired. The focus of the project can be modified depending on the student’s background, interests, and skills.

Investigating the Causes and Consequences of Changes in Biodiversity

Location: Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, Bethel Minnesota
Mentors: Forest Isbell, Professor University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Available Internships: 1or 2

Project Background:
Our lab has several field research projects that consider the effects of global changes (habitat fragmentation, biodiversity loss, drought, nutrient enrichment, and warming) on grassland and forest plant communities and ecosystem functioning. Our studies include, among others, a large habitat fragmentation experiment in grasslands (the RESCUE experiment), a tree diversity experiment replicated in several forests (the BetaDIV experiment), and a project considering how bison reintroduction is affecting oak trees in a savanna. Common measurements include plant biomass production, plant diversity, tree seedling survival and growth, soil moisture and temperature, and light availability.

Intern Duties:
The position(s) will be based at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve and will include both field work and lab work. Field research activities will include working with a team of undergraduate researchers and a lab manager to establish a new field experiment, maintain treatments for existing experiments, sample plants and soils in field experiments, maintain a network of trail cameras, digitize data, remove weeds from a phylogenetic diversity garden, and archive plant and soil samples. Lab research activities include sorting plants by species, drying and weighing plants and soils, grinding plants and soils, and sorting and weighing seeds.

Interns are also encouraged and supported to develop their own research projects either independently or as part of a team. Each summer, dozens of undergraduate students gain research experience at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve. A team of six graduate students and postdocs are employed to support undergraduates who develop their own research projects, providing (1) mentoring; (2) organizing a research symposium and field tours in mid June in which faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students present results from their ongoing studies at Cedar Creek; (3) organizing a weekly lunchtime seminar series featuring research, career paths, and DEIJ topics; (4) offering after-work workshops that provide formal research training on topics including proposal writing, literature review, data analysis, and presentation of research results; (5) planning and executing opportunities for community-building among interns and others at Cedar Creek; and (6) organizing a research symposium in mid August in which intern researchers present the findings of their independent projects.

Intern Qualifications:
Willing to work outdoors and learn new things, such as plant identification

Investigating the Role of Non-native Plantations on Forest Succession and Savanna-forest State Shifts in Guam, Micronesia

Location: Guam, Micronesia
Mentors: Serena Barasi, PhD Candidate; Ingrid Parker, Professor, UC Santa Cruz
Available Internships: 1

Project Background:
Our project investigates how native forests in Guam, Micronesia, can recover in places where non-native plantations occur. You will become integrated into our team by assisting with fieldwork and greenhouse experiments. Additionally, your independent project would focus on linking GIS data with field surveys on forest health and tree diversity. You will gain classical research skills, such as collecting field data, and analyzing quantitative and spatial data, including training in RStudio and ArcGIS/QGIS, both of which are valuable tools for ecology and conservation. This opportunity is ideal for students who are excited by the intersection of plant ecology, restoration, and forest management.

Intern Duties:
Assist with fieldwork and greenhouse experiments in Guam.
Field surveys will include navigating and backcountry hiking, sometimes in challenging weather conditions.
Perform data management, QA/QC, and statistical tests with RStudio.
Create map layers with ArcGIS or QGIS.
Interpret and communicate results.

Intern Qualifications:
Enthusiasm for plant ecology and restoration.
Ability to work both independently and collaboratively.
Comfortable with strenuous physical activity in hot, humid conditions.
Willingness to learn quantitative tools, such as R and GIS. Previous experience with GIS preferred.
Ability to communicate clearly and effectively.
Responsible and punctual.

Restoration of Coastal Vegetated Marine Ecosystems

Location: Coastal Ecology and Conservation Lab, Sonoma State University
Mentors: Brent Hughes, Professor
Available Internships: 2

Project Background:
Research and mentoring in The Hughes Lab at Sonoma State University focuses primarily on vegetated marine ecosystems in California: kelp forests, seagrass beds, and salt marshes. We aim to understand what drives these systems to be resilient when faced with stress, such as heatwaves or intense herbivory. Additionally, we are active in restoration ecology where we have developed successful strategies to aid in the recovery of collapsed kelp forests and seagrass meadows. We are very active in the field, be it diving in the kelp or wading in shallow estuaries, and we use a combination of field observations and experiments, coupled with laboratory experiments to take a comprehensive approach to addressing some of our most pressing environmental challenges. This broad portfolio of ecosystems allows for many training opportunities for students interested in marine ecology and conservation. In the past, the Hughes Lab has provided training to 10 students from the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program, from universities across the United States, including UC Santa Cruz. We are eager to participate in the CLIME Scholars program, where we can match students with projects based on their interests. More information can be found on our website: hughesecology.com.

Intern Duties:
This project will consist of a combination of field activities along the Marin, Sonoma and Mendocino Counties and laboratory activities at Sonoma State and Bodega Marine Lab. The students will be immersed in all aspects of kelp culturing and kelp forest restoration. This internship will expose students to a broad network of collaborators from Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, Cal Poly Humboldt, TNC, and many more. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to monitor estuaries in northern California by conducting fish surveys, crab trapping, and vegetation monitoring.

Intern Qualifications:
Qualifications include a desire to work outside in wet, cold, and at times muddy conditions; prior experience is a plus.

The Quest for Sustainable Livelihoods

Location: Stanford campus and/or Mexico, Chile, or another geography where fieldwork might occur
Mentors: Xavier Basurto, Professor; Nicole Franz, Research Scholar
Available Internships: 2

Project Background:
We are researching how communities gain access and govern their aquatic tenure in particular places, and how it relates to the sustainability of these ecosystems. We aim to use what we learn for (a) a book project, (b) a project on how philanthropic foundations can devise better protocols for community-led conservation, (c) in general develop protocols for practitioners and other supporters of communities to better engage with communities in the support and strengthening of their tenure, access and sustainability of aquatic resources.

Intern Duties:
1) Participate in qualitative data organization, analysis/interpretation
2) Perhaps data collection in the field
3) Conduct photographic data analysis and curation
4) Literature review on themes related to the project
5) Support data preparation and analysis for our Lab’s PhDs and/or post-docs.

Intern Qualifications:
Preferable interest in qualitative methods, fluent in Spanish, interest and/or experience in ecology and/or anthropology.