PhD life: Pushing it to the extreme, and its wonders

By Leila S. Lemos, PhD candidate in Wildlife Sciences, Fisheries and Wildlife Department

I already started my countdown: 57 days until my PhD defense date! Being so close to this date brings me a lot of excitement about sharing with the community the results of the project I’ve been working on the past 4.5 years, and that I am really proud of. It also brings me lots of excitement when thinking about the new things that will come in my next phase of life. But even though I am excited, I’ve also been stressed, anxious and under depression. There is a mix of feelings rushing inside of me right now.

For those who don’t know me, I am originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I’ve been spending the last years far from my family, friends, language and culture. My favorite hobby always was to go to the beach and swim in the warm ocean. I would do that at least twice a week. Brazil is a tropical place and we can go to the beach all year round.

Me and my nephew in one of my favorite places in Brazil: Buzios, Rio de Janeiro.

Being in Oregon is really different. Oregon is gorgeous and I love it here, especially during the summer. However, the fall season brings the rain. Lots of rain, and it only stops around March. The absence of sun (and vitamin D) also contributes to depression. Even during the summer, I cannot swim in the ocean as the water is still really cold.

In addition to all of these factors, a PhD comes with classes, exams, fieldwork, research project, lots of reading and learning, manuscript writing, deadlines and great responsibilities. When you don’t have a scholarship or when it runs out (in my case), you also need to find a way to fund yourself until it finishes. Since last September I have been a teaching assistant for the university to cover my tuition and health insurance costs, and to earn a monthly stipend. The work never ends, and you always have more and more things to do.

Source: Costanza (2015).

A PhD is a full-time job, even if you are still technically a student. Actually, a PhD is a 24-hour job. Even if you are not working, you are thinking about your experiments and/or deadlines. Even if you are not awake, you are dreaming about it. You feel guilty all the time if you are doing things that are not related to your work.

But, it turns out I am not alone. The more I talk to people about the struggles, disappointments, anxiety, impostor syndrome, insomnia, depression, exhaustion of graduate school, the more I find that it is more common than I first thought.  I have several friends facing the same problems right now.

I searched for some stats on this topic and I found a relatively recent study (Levecque et al. 2017) that evaluated the mental health of a sample of PhD students (N = 3659) from five different research discipline categories: sciences, biomedical sciences, applied sciences, humanities, and social sciences. PhD students were compared to other three groups: (1) highly educated individuals in the general population (N = 769), (2) highly educated employees (N = 592), and (3) higher education students (i.e., academic Bachelor, Master or Doctoral degree; N = 333). Research participants answered the web-based questionnaire that follows:

Table 1: Prevalence of common mental health problems in PhD students compared to three comparison groups.

Legend: RR: risk ratio adjusted for age and gender; CI: 95% confidence interval; GHQ2+: experienced at least two symptoms; GHQ3+: experienced at least three symptoms; GHQ4+: experienced at least four symptoms.
Source: Levecque et al. (2017)

It was alarming to me to see some of these results. Here are some of them:

  • A GHQ2+ score indicated psychological distress, and the prevalence was about twice as high in PhD students compared to the highly educated general population. PhD students were consistently more affected when compared to all of the other groups.
  • They found a significant relationship between psychological distress and the risk of having or developing a common psychiatric disorder (GHQ4+).
  • The odds of experiencing at least two psychological symptoms were 34% higher for female PhD students than for males.
  • No differences between scientific disciplines were found.

And here’s the funny thing: My PhD project researches stress in gray whales along the Oregon coast. I have been evaluating gray whale overall health by using different tools like photogrammetry, endocrinology and acoustics to monitor these individual whales. The more I read about stress and all the physiological response that occurs within the bodies of all vertebrates, the more I imagine it happening to me and all of the possible consequences. However, I do not consider myself a specialist on the theme yet, so I leave my mental health to a specialist. I have been seeing a psychiatrist and a psychologist and I have been learning that work-life balance is crucial, and it helps us maintain sanity. I have also been learning some “exercises” to help me with anxiety and impostor syndrome. This topic may not be an easy to talk about, but it is extremely important. If you are reading this and identify yourself, contact a professional who can help you. It has helped me.

Institutions should also increase their efforts to systematically map and monitor stressors and its outcomes in PhD students (Levecque et al. 2017). Identifying the problems and working towards solutions will benefit the institutions as students will do a better job.

Right now, I am just trying my best to achieve a work-life balance while I am still getting things done on time. All of my data has been analyzed and now I just need to write my chapters and prepare my defense presentation! It is hard to believe that in only 57 days I will be done.  

Source: Reddit (2019).

I feel like I have succeeded in painting a grim picture of life as a PhD student. If you were thinking of going to grad school and now you have doubts about it, stop right there! Grad school is challenging, but it is not impossible. There are many things that will bring you joy in grad school like a successful fieldwork season, a successful experiment, a good grade on an exam you studied really hard for, a compliment from your advisor, a R code that is finally running correctly, or an accepted manuscript in a relevant journal.

By the way… I just had a manuscript of my first thesis chapter accepted for publication and I could not be happier:

Getting a PhD is hard, but it is also rewarding. Also, any path you take in your career will have pros and cons. What determines your success is your resilience and how you deal with the challenges that come. You may be asking if I would still do a PhD if I could go back in time, right? The answer is yes! Even though I have been facing many (personal) challenges I am really proud of my PhD project findings and am glad to be contributing to the knowledge and conservation of these amazing animals.

But please, if you see me around don’t forget:

Source: Costanza (2015).

References:

Costanza T. 2015. 10 memes relate to PhD students. Available at: https://www.siliconrepublic. com/careers/10-memes-relate-to-phd-students. Date of assess: 01/20/2020

Reddit. 2019. Made a meme for my boyfriend who’s doing his PhD. Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/9fq2pq/made_a_meme_for_my_boyfriend_whos_doing_his_phd/. Date of assess: 01/20/2020

Levecque, K., F. Anseel, A. Beuckelaer, J. V. Heyden, and L. Gisle. 2017. Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students. Research Policy 46:868–879.

Burning it down

By Leila S. Lemos, PhD Candidate in Wildlife Sciences, Fisheries and Wildlife Department, OSU

As you might know, the GEMM Lab (Geospatial Ecology of MARINE Megafauna Laboratory) researches the marine environment, but today I am going to leave the marine ecosystem aside and I will discuss the Amazon biome. As a Brazilian, I cannot think of anything else to talk about this week than the terrifying fire that is burning down the Amazon forest in this exact minute.

For some context, the Amazon biome is known as the biome with the highest biodiversity in the world (ICMBio, 2019). It is the largest biome in Brazil, accounting for ~49% of the Brazilian territory. This biome houses the biggest tropical forest and hydrographic basin in the world. The Amazon forest also extends through eight other countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guiana, French Guiana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. To date, at least 40,000 plant species, 427 mammals, 1,300 birds, 378 reptiles, more than 400 amphibians, around 3,000 freshwater fishes, and around 100,000 invertebrate species have been described by scientists in the Amazon, comprising more than 1/3 of all fauna species on the planet (Da Silva et al. 2005, Lewinsohn and Prado 2005). And, these numbers are likely to increase; According to Patterson (2000), one new genus and eight new species of Neotropical mammals are discovered each year in the region.

I feel very connected to the Amazon as I worked as an environmental consultant and field coordinator in 2014 and 2015 (Figs. 1 and 2) along the Madeira river (or “Wood” river) in Rondonia, Brazil (Fig. 3). I monitored Amazon river dolphins (Inia geoffrensis; Fig. 4), a species considered endangered by the IUCN Red List in 2018 (Da Silva et al. 2018). The Madeira river originates in Bolivia and flows into the great Amazon river, comprising one of its main tributaries (Fig. 3).

Figure 1: Me, working along the Madeira river, Rondonia, Brazil, in 2015.
Source: Laura K. Honda, 2015.

Figure 2: Me, helping to rescue a sloth from the Madeira river, Rondonia, Brazil, in 2014.
Source: Roberta Lanziani, 2014.

Figure 3: The Amazon hydrographic basin, with the Madeira river highlighted.
Source: Wikipedia, 2019.

Figure 4: Amazon river dolphins (I. geoffrensis) along the Madeira river, Rondonia, Brazil.
Source: Leila S. Lemos, 2014; 2015.

Here is also a video where you can see some Amazon river dolphins along the Madeira river:

Source: Leila S. Lemos, 2014; 2015.

In addition to the dolphins, I witnessed the presence of many other fauna specimens like birds (including macaws and parrots), monkeys, alligators and sloths (Fig. 5). The biodiversity of the Amazon is unquestionable.

Figure 5: Macaws (Ara chloropterus), parrots (Amazona sp.) and the Guariba monkey or brown howler (Allouatta guariba) along the Madeira river, Rondonia, Brazil.
Source: Leila S. Lemos

Other than its great biodiversity, the Amazon is known as the “lungs of the Earth”, which is an erroneous statement since plants consume as much oxygen as they produce (Malhi et al. 2008, Malhi 2019). But still, the Amazon forest is responsible for 16% of the oxygen produced by photosynthesis on land and 9% of the oxygen on the global scale (Fig. 6). This seems a small percentage, but it is still substantial, especially because the plants use carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, which accounts for a 10% reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Thus, imagine if there was no Amazon rainforest. The rise in carbon dioxide would be enormous and have serious implications on the global climate, surpassing safe temperature boundaries for many regions.

Figure 6: Total photosynthesis of each major land biome. This value is multiplied by 2.67 to convert to total oxygen production. Hence total oxygen production by photosynthesis on land is around 330 Pg of oxygen per year. The Amazon (just under half of the tropical forests) is around 16% of this, around 54 Pg of oxygen per year.
Source: Malhi 2019.

Unfortunately, this scenario is not really far from us. Even though deforestation indices have fallen in the last 15 years, fire incidence associated with droughts and carbon emissions have increased (Aragão et al. 2018; Fig. 7).

Figure 7: Linear trends (2003–2015) of annual (a) deforestation rates, and (b) active fires counts in the Brazilian Amazon. Red circles indicate the analyzed drought years by Aragão et al. (2018).
Source: Aragão et al. 2018.

Since August 2019, the Amazon forest has experienced extreme fire outbreaks (Figs. 8 and 9). Around 80,000 fires occurred only in 2019. Despite 2019 not being an extreme drought year, the period of January-August 2019 is characterized by an ~80% increase in fires compared to the previous year (Wagner and Hayes 2019). The intensification of the fires has been linked to the Brazilian President’s incentive to “open the rainforest to development”. Leaving politics aside, the truth is that the majority of these fires have been set by loggers and ranchers seeking to clear land to expand the agro-cattle area (Yeung 2019).

Figure 8: The Amazon in July 28: just clouds; and in August 22: choked with smoke.
Source: NOAA, in: Wagner and Hayes, 2019.

Figure 9: Images showing some of the destruction caused by the fires in the Amazon region in 2019.
Source: Buzz Feed News 2019, Sea Mashable 2019.

Here you can see some videos showing the extension of the problem:

Video 1 – by NBC News:

Video 2 – a drone footage by The Guardian:

I consider myself lucky for the opportunity to have worked in the Amazon rainforest before these chaotic fires have destroyed so much biodiversity. The Amazon is a crucial home for countless animal and plant species, and to ~900,000 indigenous individuals that live in the region. They are all at risk of losing their homes and lives. We are all at risk of global warming.

References

Aragão LEOC, Anderson LO, Fonseca MG, Rosan TM, Vedovato LB, Wagner FH, Silva CVJ, Silva Junior CHL, Arai E, Aguiar AP, Barlow J, Berenguer E, Deeter MN, Domingues LG, Gatti L, Gloor M, Malhi Y, Marengo JA, Miller JB, Phillips OL, and Saatchi S. 2018. 21stCentury drought-related fires counteract the decline of Amazon deforestation carbon emissions. Nature Communications 9(536):1-12.

Buzz Feed News. 2019. These Heartbreaking Photos Show The Devastation Of The Amazon Fires. Retrieved 1 September 2019 from https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/gabrielsanchez/photos-trending-devastation-amazon-wildfire

Da Silva JMC, Rylands AB, and Da Fonseca GAB. 2005. The Fate of the Amazonian Areas of Endemism. Conservation Biology 19(3):689-694.

Da Silva V, Trujillo F, Martin A, Zerbini AN, Crespo E, Aliaga-Rossel E, and Reeves R. 2018. Inia geoffrensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T10831A50358152. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T10831A50358152.en. Downloaded on 27 August 2019.

ICMBio. 2019. Amazônia. Retrieved 26 August 2019 from http://www.icmbio.gov.br/portal/unidades deconservacao/biomas-brasileiros/amazonia

Lewinsohn TM, and Prado PI. 2005. How Many Species Are There in Brazil? Conservation Biology 19(3):619.

Malhi Y. 2019. does the amazon provide 20% of our oxygen? Travels in ecosystem science. Retrieved 29 August 2019 from http://www.yadvindermalhi.org/blog/does-the-amazon-provide-20-of-our-oxygen

Malhi Y., Roberts JT, Betts RA, Killeen TJ, Li W, Nobre CA. 2008. Climate Change, Deforestation, and the Fate of the Amazon. Science 319:169-172.

Patterson BD. 2000. Patterns and trends in the discovery of new Neotropical mammals. Diversity and Distributions, 6, 145-151.

Sea Mashable. 2019. The Amazon forest is burning to the ground. Here’s how it happened and what you can do to help. Retrieved 1 September 2019 from https://sea.mashable.com/culture/5813/the-amazon-forest-is-burning-to-the-ground-heres-how-it-happened-and-what-you-can-do-to-help

Wagner M, and Hayes M. 2019. Wildfires rage in the Amazon. CNN. Retrieved 26 August 2019 from https://www.cnn.com/americas/live-news/amazon-wildfire-august-2019/index.html

Wikipedia. 2019. Madeira river. Retrieved 29 August 2019 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeira_River

Yeung J. 2019. Blame humans for starting the Amazon fires, environmentalists say. CNN. Retrieved 26 August 2019 from https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/22/americas/amazon-fires-humans-intl-hnk-trnd/index.html

How to apply my PhD?

By Leila Lemos, PhD candidate, Fisheries and Wildlife Department

Time has flown. It seems that it was like a month ago that I received the news that I was approved in a public notice from the Brazilian government to study abroad, and began the process of moving to Oregon. But actually almost three years have now passed, and I am starting to wrap up my PhD, since I need to defend it in a little bit more than a year.

Our team is now starting the third and last fieldwork season for my PhD project. I am also working on my study plan to determine the last classes I need to take, and our first manuscripts are ‘in press’ or ‘in prep’ for submission to journals. So, it’s time for me to think about what comes next.

I am from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and I am studying in the US through a Brazilian government program called Science Without Borders. This program aims to send students abroad to learn new techniques and to develop innovative projects. The projects needed to be original to be approved by the public notice. The main idea is to bring these students back to Brazil, after their PhD completion, to disseminate the acquired knowledge by applying the learned techniques.

My project includes a few novel aspects that allowed for funding by this program. The main focus of my thesis is to develop an endocrinology study of a cetacean species. This was (and still is) a critical field in Brazil, as reported by the “National Action Plan for the conservation of aquatic mammals: Small cetaceans” (2010). According to this Action Plan, cetacean hormonal analyses are rare and of high priority, but there are limited labs with the capacity to study cetacean endocrinology in Brazil. Other limiting factors are the associated analysis costs and a lack of human knowledge and skills. In addition to the hormonal analyses (Figure 1), I am also using other ‘new technologies’ in the project: drones (Figure 2; Video 1) and GoPros (Video 2).

Figure 1: Learning how to perform hormonal analysis at the Seattle Aquarium, WA.
Source: Angela Smith

 

Figure 2: Learning how to fly a drone in Newport, OR.
Source: Florence Sullivan

 

Video 1: Drone flights performed in Newport, OR, during fieldwork in 2016.

* Taken under NOAA/NMFS permit #16111 to John Calambokidis.

 

Video 2: Video of mysid swarms during a GoPro deployment conducted in Port Orford, OR, during fieldwork in 2016.

 

The importance of studying cetacean hormones includes a better understanding of their reproductive cycles (i.e., sex hormones such as progesterone, testosterone and estradiol) and their physiological stress response (i.e., cortisol) to possible threats (e.g., acoustic pollution, contaminants, lack of prey). In addition, through photographs and videos recorded by drones we can conduct photogrammetry analysis to monitoring cetacean body condition, and through GoPro recordings of the water column we can assess prey availability. Changes in both body condition and prey can help us explaining how and why hormone levels vary.

Through my PhD I have obtained skills in hormone analysis, photogrammetry and video prey assessment by studying the logistically accessible and non-threatened gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus). During method development, these features are important to increase sample size and demonstrate feasibility. But now that the methodologies have proven successful, we can start applying them to other species and regions, and under different circumstances, to improve conservation efforts of threatened populations.

Many cetacean species along the Brazilian coast are threatened, particularly from fishing gear and vessel interactions, chemical and noise pollution. By applying the methods we have developed in the GEMM Lab during my PhD to cetacean conservation issues in Brazil, we could enable a great expansion in knowledge across many fields (i.e., endocrinology, behavior, photogrammetry, diet). Additionally, these skills can promote safer work environments (for the scientist and for the object of study) and cheaper work processes. However, many countries, such as Brazil, do not have the infrastructure and access to technologies to conduct these same analyses, as in developed countries like the USA. These technologies, when sold in Brazil, have many taxes on the top of the product that they can become an extra hurdle, due to budget constraints. Thus, there is a need for researchers to adapt these skills and technologies, in the best manner possible, to the reality of the country.

Now that I am starting to think about ‘life after PhD’, I can see myself returning to my country to spread the knowledge, technologies and skills I have gained through these years at OSU to new research projects so that I am able to assist with conservation efforts for the ocean and marine fauna in Brazil.

 

References:

PAN, 2010. Plano de ação nacional para a conservação dos mamíferos aquáticos: pequenos cetáceos / André Silva Barreto … [et al.]; organizadores Claudia Cavalcante Rocha-Campos, Ibsen de Gusmão Câmara, Dan Jacobs Pretto. – Brasília: Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade, Icmbio, 132 p. Em: <http://www.icmbio.gov.br/portal/images/ stories/docs-plano-de-acao/pan-peqs-cetaceos/pan_pequenoscetaceos_web.pdf> Acessado em: 27 de Maio de 2015.