Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Science

A department of diverse faculty & students dedicated to solving critical environmental challenges with cutting-edge research.

The Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences offers a variety of undergraduate and graduate programs to educate, inspire and prepare the next generation of scientists. NRES faculty are engaged in cutting-edge research in the following areas:

AIR
Our interest spans a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from the characterization of pollutant emissions from combustion sources to the understanding of atmospheric photochemical processes to the quantification of human exposure to air pollution.

WATER
Bringing field and remote sensing observations, as well as modeling, to bear on the most pressing questions in the fields of water quality, lake clarity, stream and creek ecosystems and mountain ecohydrology.

SOILS
Focus ranges from soil hydrologic conditions, to the evaluation of current and past environmental conditions, to the characterization of physiochemical processes in the region’s soils..

PLANTS
Our interest spans a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from mountain meadows and sierra forest, to riparian communities along our creeks and streams, to the vast open space of the Great Basin rangelands.

WILDLIFE
The scope of interest includes interaction between wildlife and land uses, avian ecology, forestry-wildlife relationships, endangered species management, reproductive ecology, nutrition and foraging ecology, predator-prey interactions, and population dynamics.

In the News

Forest management research to help fight effects of climate change

Sarah Bisbing is building a Sierra Nevada-wide study to identify alternative forest management treatments that will improve conifer forest resistance and resilience to climate change.

In the News

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