Departmental Degree Requirements

The specific course requirements for graduation are established by a student's individual committee depending on the research requirements. The department has no uniform foreign language requirement; however, an individual student may be required by their thesis or dissertation committee to demonstrate competence in a foreign language.

Research Programs   Active research programs emphasizing basic science exist within each of the core areas of the department: ecology, geosciences, atmospheric sciences, and hydrology. In addition, a number of current research efforts aim toward an integration of many or all of the core disciplines in order to address complex environmental questions from a comprehensive viewpoint. Further details on current research projects and research interests of individual faculty are available from the department on request.

Facilities   The Department of Environmental Sciences is located in Clark Hall, along with the Science and Engineering Library, on the central Grounds of the University. Additional laboratory space is located in Halsey Hall (adjacent). Departmental facilities include field vehicles, boats, aerial photographic interpretation equipment, machine and electronics shops, environmental chambers, analytical chemistry laboratories, mass-spectrometer facility, greenhouse and insectary facilities, computers, workstations, complete weather communications package which includes Unidata/PC-McIdes DIFAX, Domestic Data Plus, International Data, and NOAA Weather Wire. The Department has a geographic information system (GIS) laboratory equipped with several Sun workstations running ERDAS and ARCINFO software. Appropriate color output devices are available there. A computational hydrology laboratory includes an IBM RS/6000, Sun SPARC station, several X-terminals, and color and laser printers. Departmental field facilities include seven instrumented watersheds in and adjacent to Shenandoah National Park, in the coastal plain, and on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The department operates a research facility (Pace-Steger Estate) near the University that includes hydrological and meteorological monitoring equipment.

The department also operates the Virginia Coast Reserve Long Term Ecological Research (VCR/LTER) site under funding provided by the National Science Foundation. This site is one of 18 that provide an international focus on ecosystem properties. The VCR/LTER's primary focus is in spatial and temporal variation in a barrier island-lagoon complex that leads to changes in ecosystem states.

Blandy Farm The Blandy Experimental Farm of the University of Virginia provides residential, greenhouse, laboratory, and field facilities for student and faculty research. It is particularly well suited for manipulative field experiments in agricultural, old field, and forest environments.

Moore Lectures The department presents a University-wide series of lectures annually under the sponsorship of Mr. Fred H. Moore, an alumnus of the University. These are delivered by nationally known authorities on broad areas of environmental concern to society.

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