Environmental Sciences

Overview

The program in environmental sciences endeavors to understand the impact of agricultural practices on the environment and the impact of the environment on agriculture. The overall goal of the graduate option in environmental sciences is to improve agricultural profitability while decreasing adverse impacts on the environment, both local and global.

Agricultural environmental sciences encompass a wide diversity of fundamental and applied research topics. Students can learn to:

• improve the agricultural environment by reducing nonpoint source pollution that will enhance the efficiency of producers;
• determine the environmental toxicity of agricultural chemicals and participate in the development of rational management strategies;
• understand the responses of crops to global atmospheric and climate change, and generate adaptive strategies and select new genotypes for this changed environment;
• develop mathematical models to explore options for partial mitigation of atmospheric change through cropping systems;
• isolate and chemically characterize new value-added products from agronomic commodities, especially commercial byproducts, that will reduce waste and generate materials that may protect public health and the environment; and
• develop new biological and chemical assay systems to detect hazardous environmental contaminants.

Faculty Researching Environmental Sciences

Specific areas of study are listed below by faculty member. More extensive information on these research programs is readily available from faculty web pages or through personal contact with faculty members.

Name	Specializations
Michael J. Plewa	environmental and molecular mutagenesis; basic and applied genetic toxicology and antimutagenesis
Stephen P. Long	plant physiology and ecology
A. Lane Rayburn	cytogenetics
Benjamin F. Tracy	agro-ecology, grazing, nutrient cycling