This option is intended to train students who are interested in understanding the ecology of organisms in natural environments, and/or in understanding how organisms may be used to clean up environments that have been disturbed by human activities.

The curriculum launches from a base in environmental science which includes a broad knowledge of organisms (including plants, animals, and microorganisms) and the physical and chemical characteristics of natural environments. A special feature of this option is that it emphasizes cross-training between the traditional disciplines of Biology and Microbiology. Students trained in Biology or Microbiology normally focus on either large or small organisms or on human biology and disease.

• Geospatial & Environmental Analysis Option

This degree is for students interested in land resources and their management at landscape scales. All human activities depend on the world's land and water resource base. The air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat all depend upon activities occurring and interacting across broad extents of the Earth's land surface.

This curriculum is based on the philosophy that our well-being requires knowledge-based decision making involving land and natural resources across these large areas. Students build on knowledge of the basic natural sciences with course work in geology, biology, geography, soils, and ecology.

Then, courses in remote sensing, geographic information systems, global positioning and statistics provide tools for gathering, processing, analyzing, and displaying information about land resources across large areas. Finally, students learn how to integrate land resource information with social and financial realities to support balanced management decisions

• Land Rehabilitation Option

The Land Rehabilitation curriculum provides training in site remediation and restoration ecology, including soil remediation, re-vegetation, fluvial and riparian restoration, investigation of impacted geologic resources, amelioration of contaminated soils and water, integrated management of invasive species, and remediation of sites impacted by industrial, recreational, and land management activities.

Emphasis is placed on developing a broad understanding of hydrologic, soil, and plant processes from both a basic and an applied science approach. Coursework in the chemical, biological, and environmental sciences provides a foundation of knowledge. During the junior and senior years, students take courses in soil, water and plant sciences that range from molecular to landscape in scale. Students will acquire skills in plant identification and landscape inventory including geographic information systems.

• Soil and Water Science Option

The Soil and Water Science Option provides students with fundamental training in basic biological, chemical, and physical sciences and advanced training in soil and water sciences. Students are encouraged through choice electives to emphasize specific course sequences to help them understand the underlying processes central to managed and natural landscapes, as well as to develop practical skills and abilities relevant to applying this knowledge in land resource management and the environmental sciences.

Water is perhaps the most unique substance on earth, having a multitude of seemingly anomalous properties, and literally forms the basis for life as we know it. Soils form the precious 'skin' of the Earth, the critical interface between atmospheric and geologic/groundwater systems. The multitude of physical, chemical, and biological processes that occur in the three-phase soil system (solids, water and air) are critical to sustainability of natural and managed ecosystems. Soils and water will be among the most critical limiting resources in coming decades