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Land Surface Processes and Environmental Change Domain
This domain is open only to students in the B.Sc. (Ag.Env.Sc.) Major Environment or B.Sc. Major Environment program.
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Bachelor of Science (Agricultural and Environmental Sciences) (B.Sc.(Ag.Env.Sc.)) or Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.)-Major Environment - Land Surface Processes and Environmental Change (63 credits)
This Domain (63 credits including Core) is open only to students in the B.Sc.(Ag.Env.Sc.) Major in Environment or B.Sc. Major in Environment program.
The thin soil layer on the planet's land surfaces controls the vital inputs of water, nutrients and energy to terrestrial and freshwater aquatic ecosystems. Widespread occurrences around the globe of desertification, soil erosion, deforestation and land submergence over water reservoirs indicate that this dynamic system is under increasing pressure from population growth and changes in climate and land uses. Production of key greenhouse gases (water vapour, CO2 and methane) is controlled by complex processes operating at the land surface, involving climate change feedbacks that need to be fully understood, given current global warming trends.
The program introduces students to the interacting physical and biogeochemical processes at the atmosphere-lithosphere interface, which fashion land surface habitats and determine their biological productivity and response to anthropogenic or natural environmental changes. Through an appropriate selection of courses, students can prepare for graduate training in emerging research areas such as earth system sciences, environmental hydrology and landscape ecology.
Suggested First Year (U1) Courses
For suggestions on courses to take in your first year (U1), you can consult the "MSE Student Handbook 2010-11" available on the MSE website (/mse), or contact Ms. Kathy Roulet, the Program Advisor (kathy.roulet [at] mcgill.ca).
Program Requirements
NOTE: Students are required to take a maximum of 30 credits at the 200-level and a minimum of 12 credits at the 400-level or higher in this program. This includes Core and Required courses.
Location Note: Core Required courses for this program are taught at both ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ's downtown campus and at the Macdonald Campus in Ste. Anne de Bellevue.
Core: Required Courses (18 credits)
Location Note: Core required courses for this program are taught at both ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ's downtown campus and at the Macdonald campus in Ste. Anne de Bellevue. You should register in Section 001 of an ENVR course that you plan to take on the downtown campus, and in Section 051 of an ENVR course that you plan to take on the Macdonald campus.
ENVR 200 | (3) | The Global Environment |
ENVR 201 | (3) | Society and Environment |
ENVR 202 | (3) | The Evolving Earth |
ENVR 203 | (3) | Knowledge, Ethics and Environment |
ENVR 301 | (3) | Environmental Research Design |
ENVR 400 | (3) | Environmental Thought |
Domain: Complementary Courses (39 credits)
39 credits of Complementary Courses are selected as follows:
9 credits - 3 credits from each category of Statistics, Geo-Information Science, Weather and Climate
9 credits of fundamental land surface processes
3 credits of environment and resource management
3 credits of field course
3 credits of social science
12 credits total of advanced studies chosen from the List A: Particular Environments and the List B: Surface Processes
Statistics
One of the following statistics courses or equivalent:
Note: Credit given for statistics courses is subject to certain restrictions. Students in Science should consult the "Course Overlap" information in the "Course Requirements" section for the Faculty of Science.
AEMA 310 | (3) | Statistical Methods 1 |
GEOG 202 | (3) | Statistics and Spatial Analysis |
MATH 203 | (3) | Principles of Statistics 1 |
Fundamental Land Surface Processes:
9 credits of fundamental land surface processes chosen as follows:
GEOG 321 | (3) | Climatic Environments |
Environment and Resource Management:
one of:
AGRI 435 | (3) | Soil and Water Quality Management |
AGRI 452 | (3) | Water Resources in Barbados |
AGRI 550 | (3) | Sustained Tropical Agriculture |
BIOL 308 | (3) | Ecological Dynamics |
BIOL 465 | (3) | Conservation Biology |
CHEE 230 | (3) | Environmental Aspects of Technology |
CIVE 225 | (4) | Environmental Engineering |
ENVB 305 | (3) | Population & Community Ecology |
ESYS 301 | (3) | Earth System Modelling |
GEOG 302 | (3) | Environmental Management 1 |
GEOG 380 | (3) | Adaptive Environmental Management |
GEOG 404 | (3) | Environmental Management 2 |
NRSC 437 | (3) | Assessing Environmental Impact |
WILD 421 | (3) | Wildlife Conservation |
WOOD 420 | (3) | Environmental Issues: Forestry |
WOOD 441 | (3) | Integrated Forest Management |
Social Science:
one of:
AGEC 333 | (3) | Resource Economics |
ANTH 339 | (3) | Ecological Anthropology |
ECON 225 | (3) | Economics of the Environment |
ECON 326 | (3) | Ecological Economics |
ECON 405 | (3) | Natural Resource Economics |
GEOG 221 | (3) | Environment and Health |
GEOG 408 | (3) | Geography of Development |
GEOG 498 | (3) | Humans in Tropical Environments |
GEOG 508 | (3) | Resources, People and Power |
NRSC 221 | (3) | Environment and Health |
SOCI 565 | (3) | Social Change in Panama |
URBP 520 | (3) | Globalization: Planning and Change |
List A - Particular Environments:
3 to 9 credits of advanced study of Particular Environments:
BIOL 432 | (3) | Limnology |
ENVB 315 | (3) | Science of Inland Waters |
ENVB 410 | (3) | Ecosystem Ecology |
GEOG 350 | (3) | Ecological Biogeography |
GEOG 372 | (3) | Running Water Environments |
GEOG 470 | (3) | Wetlands |
GEOG 536 | (3) | Geocryology |
GEOG 550 | (3) | Historical Ecology Techniques |
PLNT 358 | (3) | Flowering Plant Diversity |
PLNT 460 | (3) | Plant Ecology |
List B - Surface Processes:
3 to 9 credits advanced study of Surface Processes:
ATOC 315 | (3) | Water in the Atmosphere |
BREE 509 | (3) | Hydrologic Systems and Modelling |
EPSC 549 | (3) | Hydrogeology |
EPSC 580 | (3) | Aqueous Geochemistry |
GEOG 501 | (3) | Modelling Environmental Systems |
GEOG 505 | (3) | Global Biogeochemistry |
GEOG 522 | (3) | Advanced Environmental Hydrology |
GEOG 537 | (3) | Advanced Fluvial Geomorphology |
NRSC 333 | (3) | Pollution and Bioremediation |
SOIL 331 | (3) | Soil Physics |
SOIL 510 | (3) | Environmental Soil Chemistry |