Environmental Stress in Ecosystems: Linking Ecology and Engineering

环境科学家必须能够综合关于受干扰的生态系统的生物、化学和物理属性的各种信息。我们建议对学生进行环境科学方面的广泛培训，以培养出具有解决严重和复杂环境问题所需的广博知识的专业人员。单一学科的方法不足以识别、解决和避免环境退化。然而，研究生课程在超越学院和院系的传统界限、发展严格而全面的、整合学科的学位课程方面进展缓慢。我们建议的环境科学培训计划将促进来自两个主要学科的学生、教师、课程、设施和知识的整合：生态学和环境工程。我们的培训计划将鼓励开发解决现实世界环境扰动和缓解情况所需的综合研究努力。我们将结合以下几个方面来实现这一目标：(1)三个主要研究领域(环境化学、有机生物学和水生生态学)的传统课程；(2)涵盖环境科学六个关键分学科的创新实地培训模块；(3)对学生进行深入的教学培训；以及(4)积极招募少数民族学生参加该项目。我们认为，来自NSF的培训拨款是协调圣母大学环境科学和工程方面积极的研究生项目的重要一步。

Environmental scientists must be able to synthesize diverse information about the biological, chemical, and physical attributes of perturbed ecosystems. We propose to train students broadly in the environmental sciences to produce professionals with the breadth of knowledge needed to address serious and complex environmental problems. A single-discipline approach is inadequate to identify, solve, and avoid environmental degradation. Yet, graduate programs have been slow to move beyond the traditional boundaries of colleges and departments to develop rigorous and comprehensive degree programs that integrate disciplines. Our proposed training program in environmental science will foster integration of students, faculty, curricula, facilities, and knowledge from two major disciplines: Ecology and Environmental Engineering. Our training program will encourage the development of integrated research efforts needed to address real-world situations of environmental perturbation and mitigations. We will accomplish this with a combination of: (1) traditional coursework in three primary research areas (Environmental Chemistry, Organismal Biology, and Aquatic Ecology), (2) innovative field training modules covering six critical subdisciplines in environmental science, (3) in-depth instructional training for the students, and (4) active recruitment of minority students for the program. We view a training grant from NSF as a major step in coordinating the active graduate programs in environmental science and engineering at the University of Notre Dame.