ENSC - Environmental Science

ENSC 110 Land Resources and Environmental Sciences: 3 Credits (3 Lec)

Introduction to environmental science associated with managed and natural ecosystems. Students will learn how to identify scientific questions from issues, and how to develop scientifically-based objective information for answering environmental and land management questions. The class is a survey of the department’s majors in agroecology, environmental biology, geospatial sciences, land rehabilitation, and soil and water science. Students must be proficient in basic algebra and have an understanding of biological principles.

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Be knowledgeable of basic environmental and ecological science topics.
aware of objective, science-based information is collected and interpreted.
Define environmental and ecological sustainability.
Identify and define the different stages of the scientific method.
Be aware and conversant of environmental management issues and management approaches that can be used to mitigate or solve them, particularly as related land degradation issues such as mining, farming and recreation.

ENSC 210 Role of Plants in the Environment: 3 Credits (3 Lec)

PREREQUISITE: BIOB 160 and sophomore standing. Applying the fundamentals of the scientific method to gain a basic understanding of plant ecology and physiology with an emphasis on how plants respond and adapt to abiotic and biotic factors and the consequences for community dynamics and ecosystem feedbacks

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Become familiar with basic plant biology and physiology including how plants interact with abiotic and biotic components of ecosystems
To understand how plants sense and respond to a changing environment and how changes alter fitness at the individual, population and community scales
Understand the basics of plant growth and population dynamics
Gain insight into the ways in which species interactions and the environment determine community composition and structure
Identify factors influencing plant species distributions on a local to global scale
Develop testable hypotheses and derive research objectives from observation in natural systems
Apply the scientific method using field and laboratory techniques to address student-led questions in plant ecology and physiology
Think critically about peer-reviewed literature and the application of findings to major ecological issues and goals
Effectively communicate scientific findings through clear writing and oral presentations to a range of audiences.

ENSC 245IN Soils: 3 Credits (2 Lec, 1 Lab)

PREREQUISITE: M 121Q or above. Soils and their properties as components of landscapes and ecosystems. Application of soils knowledge to problems in environmental sciences and management of agricultural, wildland, and urban landscapes

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identify dominant soil-forming processes
recognize soil horizons in the field
characterize soil profiles in the field and soil properties in the lab
quantify soil physical, chemical, and biological properties of soils--in the field and in the lab
explain the complexities of soil formation and soil classification according to US Soil Taxonomy
explain the management implications for soil formation and soil loss: past, present, and future
explain the hydrologic cycle as it relates to--and is influenced by--soils
explain the complexities of biogeochemical cycles, such as the C, N, and P cycles
explain the interdependence of soils, their corresponding landscapes, and both human and natural influences

ENSC 260 Evolution for Env Scientists: 3 Credits (3 Lec)

PREREQUISITE: BIOB 160
Overview of the mechanisms and patterns of evolution, focusing methods in the field the role of evolutionary biology in understanding issues in environmental science.

ENSC 272CS Water Resources: 3 Credits (3 Lec)

PREREQUISITES: Sophomore Standing
An introduction to the science, uses, policy and management of fresh water resources, including hydrologic and ecologic processes, and related historic, policy, law and socioeconomic aspects. The course is intended for majors in the sciences, social sciences, and other disciplines. This course is offered face-to-face in the Fall Semester and Online in the Spring and Summer Semesters. Department of Land Resources Environmental Sciences.

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Explain the water cycle
Delineate and describe your home (or another) watershed, identify how and by whom its waters are managed, and describe the location, movement, quality, uses, and transformations of those waters, both above- and below-ground
Appraise the benefits and drawbacks of human approaches for handling water - economic, legal, infrastructural, and policy\\n
Explain the methods used to generate an understanding of water resources in the natural world and human activities that impact those resources\\n

ENSC 290R Undergraduate Research: 1-4 Credits (1-4 Lec)

PREREQUISITE: Sophomore standing and approval of instructor and department head. Course will address responsible conduct of research. Directed undergraduate research/creative activity which may culminate in a research paper, journal article, or other creative project
Repeatable up to 12 credits.

ENSC 291 Special Topics: 1-4 Credits (1-4 Lec)

PREREQUISITE: None required, but some may be determined necessary by each offering department. Courses not required in any curriculum for which there is a particular one-time need, or given on a trial basis to determine acceptability and demand before requesting a regular course number
Repeatable up to 12 credits.

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Special Topics: Student learning outcomes vary.

ENSC 292 Independent Study: 1-3 Credits (1-3 Lec)

PREREQUISITE: Consent of instructor and approval of department head. Directed research and study on an individual basis
Repeatable up to 6 credits.

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Independent Study - learning outcomes will vary.

ENSC 298 Internship: 2-4 Credits (2-4 Other)

PREREQUISITE: Consent of instructor and approval of department head. An individualized assignment arranged with an agency, business, or other organization to provide guided experience within the field
Repeatable up to 12 credits.

ENSC 311 Fundamentals of Environmental Data Analysis: 3 Credits (2 Lec, 1 Lab)

PREREQUISITE: STAT 216Q or BIOB 318. (Sp) Course will cover the key components of data science within the context of answering environmental science questions. The course will equip students with the foundational knowledge and programming skills necessary to work with and analyze data, including the importation and restructuring of data as well as exploratory data analysis and visualization

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import and export tabular data using a programming language
restructure imported tabular data using a programming language
produce visualizations and graphics of tabular data using a programming language
generate and interpret summary data products based on descriptive statistics and visualizations generated using a programming language
use an application programming interface to access environmental data
answer an environmental science question of their own using the skills and foundational knowledge obtained in objectives 1-5.

ENSC 353 Environmental Biogeochemistry: 3 Credits (3 Lec)

PREREQUISITE: CHMY 143, ENSC 245IN. Foundational course will cover mechanisms controlling the behavior of inorganic and organic constituents in soil and water systems. Applications will focus on integrating biological and chemical processes to understand biogeochemical cycling, nutrient bioavailability, and the fate and transport of chemicals

ENSC 391 Fundamentals of Environmental Data Analysis: 1-4 Credits ()

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Students will be able to import, visualize, and export extensive tabular data sets using a programming language and spreadsheets.
Students will be able to restructure data in a programming language and spreadsheets to create the data structures necessary for input to analysis and visualization tools.
Students will be able to generate analytical data products that have sufficient metadata to allow their analysis to be understood or reproduced.
Students will be able to generate and interpret a summary data product based on descriptive statistics with associated visualizations.
Students will be able to generate and interpret an inferential data product based on population comparison statistics with associated visualizations.
Students will be able to generate and interpret an inferential data product based on regression statistics with associated visualizations.
Students will be able to build simple linear donor-limited process-based storage models and assess their behavior using sensitivity analyses.

ENSC 407 Environmental Risk Assessment: 3 Credits (3 Lec)

PREREQUISITE: BIOB 170IN. (Sp) Principles of risk analysis, including risk assessment, perception, communication, and management. Emphasis on human toxicology, exotoxicology, dose-response relationships, exposure analysis, environmental fate, and deterministic and probabilistic risk assessment

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Identify the major conceptual and practical steps used in risk assessment.
Explain the differences between risk perception, risk communication, risk management and risk assessment.
Conduct environmental risk assessments.
Evaluate the scientific weight of evidence for environmental risk issues.

ENSC 410R Biodiversity Survey and Monitoring Methods: 3 Credits (2 Lec, 1 Lab)

PREREQUISITE: NRSM 240 or BIOE 370; BIOB 318 or STAT 216Q. Biodiversity survey and monitoring designs, sampling methods, and data evaluation techniques are introduced. Emphasis is on plants but other taxa are addressed for agricultural, rehabilitation and wildland systems. One week of fieldwork required prior to semester; course completion mid-October

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Understand a variety of methods and techniques to measure and sample for biodiversity.
Develop hands-on knowledge of various biodiversity sampling methods and response metrics used on plants and insects
Understand how to apply methodologies to different field situations depending on goals of management or research
Develop biodiversity research project

ENSC 443 Weed Ecology and Management: 3 Credits (2 Lec, 1 Lab)

PREREQUISITE: M 121Q, STAT 216Q or BIOB 318. The principles of weed ecology including plant population demographics, biotic and abiotic regulating mechanisms, and plant community temporal and spatial dynamics in managed ecosystems. Weed population model construction, spreadsheet calculations and thorough assessment of pest threshold theory. The study of ecologically-based weed management approaches including cultural, mechanical, biological, and chemical control practices

ENSC 444 Watershed Hydrology: 3 Credits (2 Lec, 1 Lab)

PREREQUISITE: ENSC 245IN; M 151Q or M 161Q or M 165Q or M 166 or M 171Q or M 181Q or M 182; PHSX 205 or PHSX 220 or PHSX 240; or consent of instructor; RECOMMENDED PREREQUISITE: STAT 216Q. This course provides a conceptual and quantitative introduction to the physical fundamentals of environmental and watershed hydrology. Focus is on the hydrologic processes that determine how rainfall and snowmelt ultimately become stream flow and evapotranspiration. Topics include the basics of: stream flow analysis, water balances, thermal energy balances, climate and weather, soil physics, ecohydrology, groundwater hydrology, groundwater-surface water interactions, stream flow generation, and water quality. Incoming students are advised to be proficient in algebraic and spreadsheet analyses and to be familiar with the basics of probability analysis and descriptive statistics

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Have command of core vocabulary and concepts.
Understand major processes and their controls.
Be familiar with key measurement and estimation methods and their strengths and weaknesses.
Have a basic understanding of selected ways to characterize precipitation and streamflow statistically.
Appreciate the diversity of watersheds and the importance of hydrologic processes to a wide range of issues.

ENSC 445 Watershed Analysis: 3 Credits (3 Lec)

PREREQUISITE: ENSC 444 and STAT 216Q or BIOB 318 or permission of instructor. Conceptual and quantitative analysis of watershed processes with an emphasis on modeling surface water hydrology and water resources management. Watershed modeling concepts including analysis of time series, spatially variable data, model calibration, and uncertainty analysis will be studied and demonstrated. Co-convened with LRES 545

ENSC 448 Stream Restoration Ecology: 3 Credits (2 Lec, 1 Lab)

PREREQUISITE: BIOB 170IN, and either NRSM 240 or BIOE 370 or consent of instructor. Students will critically assess the definitions, assumptions, goals, appropriateness, and outcomes implicit in stream restoration projects in relation to ecosystem processes and dynamics in rivers and streams. Based on this information, students will critique an array of real-world stream restoration plans to identify implicit assumptions, goals, biases, and assess implementation strategies in the contest of tenets of the conceptual underpinnings of stream ecology as a discipline

ENSC 454 Landscape Pedology: 3 Credits (2 Lec, 1 Lab)

PREREQUISITE: ENSC 245IN. Processes leading to the formation and spatial distribution of soils on the landscape. Describing, classifying, and mapping soils. We explore classical approaches to evaluating soil development using concepts of soil age and residence time, and variation of soil properties with climate, geomorphic and hydrologic context, plant communities, and parent material. The course includes a substantial hands-on field component. Land use and soil management for agriculture/range are considered in the context of larger scale controls on soil development and distribution

ENSC 458 Teaching Applications in LRES: 1-3 Credits (1-3 Lab)

Application of teaching philosophies and methods through classroom, laboratory, and field teaching experiences.
Repeatable up to 3 credits.

ENSC 460 Soil Remediation: 3 Credits (3 Lec)

PREREQUISITE: ENSC 245IN. Principles of soil remediation in impacted landscapes. Soil reconstruction practices are presented for drastically disturbed lands. Treatment science is presented to repair soil systems contaminated by metals and salt as a result of resource extraction and landscape disturbance by humans. Protection of water resources are examined as related to sediment loss control, acid rock drainage science and treatment, and selective handling of geologic stratum. A field trip to a contaminated landscape will demonstrate on-going soil remediation practices

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This course aims to build knowledge, skills, and a healthy attitude toward the challenges inherent in soil remediation, from mineland reclamation to salt-affected soils to leaking underground storage tanks.
a recognition that holistic approaches to remediation can improve opportunities to attain (simultaneously) triple bottom-line objectives such as "cheap, fast, and good."
familiarity with team-based-learning pedagogic approaches.
fluency in unit conversions and calculations, including but not limited to site-specific liming requirements, irrigation requirements; electron donor requirements, and haulage requirements.
ability to apply basic physical, chemical, and biological principles to soil processes, especially those that govern the repair of soil.

ENSC 461 Restoration Ecology: 3 Credits (3 Lec)

PREREQUISITE: BIOB 170IN, and either NRSM 240 or BIOE 370. Review of ecosystem structure and function, and community and population processes in intact systems, along with the effects of major disturbances on natural systems. Restoration amendments will be discussed in terms of their effects on ecosystem structure and function. The course includes case studies, and focuses on plant and soil systems. Co-convened with LRES 563

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After completing this course, students will be able to
define and distinguish between ecosystem structure and ecosystem function; define and contrast ecological restoration, reclamation and land rehabilitation; and describe the link between ecosystem processes and restoration ecology;
describe the environmental requirements for plant establishment and growth;
describe the role of soil biota for ecosystem processes;
understand a range of methods of ecological restoration, including substrate manipulations, revegetation, and monitoring;
work in interdisciplinary groups to problem-solve in relation to restoration scenarios; and
discuss current restoration practices, including simple methods for testing the efficacy of restoration practices.

ENSC 462 Land Rehab Field Problem: 2 Credits (2 Lab)

PREREQUISITES: ENSC 460 and ENSC 461
Extended field trip to numerous drastically disturbed sites across the Northern Rockies and Northern Great Plains. On-site review of land rehabilitation challenges, potential solutions, and methodologies. Participation by industry, regulatory agency staff, and rehabilitation professionals will occur at most sites.
Repeatable up to 12 credits.

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Upon completion of this course, students will

a. demonstrate familiarity with disturbed site inspections

b. demonstrate proficiency in prioritizing site-specific remedial challenges

c. demonstrate promise in communicating site-specific challenges to stakeholders

d. demonstrate promise in designing site-specific remediation approaches

e. demonstrate promise in evaluating site-specific remediation approaches

ENSC 464 Computational Techniques Environmental Science: 1 Credits (1 Lab)

PREREQUISITE: BIOB 170IN. Computational skills are increasingly important in the Environmental Sciences. This course will focus on basic computer programming using R. No prior expertise is required and exercises will begin at a basic level

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Students will become familiar with numerical programming as applied to the environmental sciences. Specific learning outcomes include mastery of syntax, vectors, matrices, data frames, summary statistics, graphics, and loops.

ENSC 465 Environmental Biophysics: 3 Credits (2 Lec, 1 Lab)

PREREQUISITE: BIOB 170IN. The study of physical relationships between organisms, ecosystems, and their environment. Basic principles of Micrometeorology, Biometeorology, Ecological Climatology, and Biophysical Ecology as applied to contemporary ecological challenges. Laboratory sessions will focus on computer exercises using ecosystem models and field observations. Co-convened with LRES 565

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Students will apply basic numerical programming, likely either MATLAB or R depending on student preference, to model environmental phenomena.

ENSC 466 Chemical Ecology: 3 Credits (3 Lec)

PREREQUISITE: BIOE 370 or NRSM 240 and CHMY 121 or CHMY 141 or CHMY 151. How organismal interactions are shaped through plant secondary metabolites
emphasizing the impacts on ecosystems across multiple scales and in response to a rapidly changing climate. This course combines lectures with student led discussions on contemporary issues and developments in the field and is also designed to improve critical readings of the primary literature and effective communication in science.

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Become familiar with the major classes of plant secondary metabolites (PSM), the biosynthetic pathways that produce them, and their distribution among plant families.
Understand the distribution, allocation, and evolutionary selection for PSMs
Gain insight into the integrative roles of PSMs in connecting multiple components of ecological systems, with a focus on plant-plant, plant-microbe, and plant-insect interactions.
Appreciate the large-scale impacts of PSMs as they both cause and respond to global scale environmental change.
Gain awareness regarding the development of analytical tools and advances in molecular ecology as they relate to rapid expansion within the field of chemical ecology.
Become familiar with the far-reaching ecological consequences of the genes underlying the production of PSMs and how they should guide practical applications in environmental management and other ecosystem services.
Think critically about peer-review literature and the application of findings to major ecological issues and goals.
Develop effective ways of communicating science in both oral and written form.
Effectively navigate the ways in which one can access scientific journals, books, and information.

ENSC 468 Ecosystem Biogeochem and Global Change: 3 Credits (3 Lec)

PREREQUISITE: ENSC 353. Introduction to the study of biogeochemistry and ecosystem dynamics from an Earth-systems perspective. Discussion will emphasize factors governing the "grand elemental cycles" of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous of Earth's major ecosystems and how modern human activities are affecting these cycles. Co-convened with LRES 568

ENSC 490R Undergraduate Research: 1-6 Credits (1 Other)

PREREQUISITE: Junior or Senior standing and approval of instructor. Directed undergraduate research/creative activity which may culminate in a research paper, journal article, or undergraduate thesis. USP scholarships or project support grants are available in many cases. Course will address responsible conduct of research. May be repeated
Repeatable up to 12 credits.

ENSC 491 Special Topics: 1-4 Credits (4 Lec, 4 Lab, 4 Other)

PREREQUISITE: Course prerequisites as determined for each offering. Courses not required in any curriculum for which there is a particular one-time need, or given on a trial basis to determine acceptability and demand before requesting a regular course number
Repeatable up to 12 credits.

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Be able to identify the critical components of the rural Moroccan food system.
Be able to identify vulnerability, resilience, and adaptive capacity aspects of the agricultural system.
Be able to analyze agricultural systems to improve agricultural practices.
Be able to apply knowledge and concepts from rural Moroccan systems to agricultural systems in the United States.
Communicate across cultures
Measure characteristics of water and soil in rural agroecosystems.
Estimate yields of important crops.
Identify ways to make soil amendments to correct critical soil deficiencies.
Identify suitable crops for the rural Moroccan environmental conditions through trial plantings.
Individually document perspectives on culture and personal growth.

ENSC 492 Independent Study: 1-3 Credits (1 Other)

PREREQUISITE: Junior standing, consent of instructor, and approval of department head. Directed research and study on an individual basis
Repeatable up to 6 credits.

ENSC 498 Internship: 2-12 Credits (2-12 Other)

PREREQUISITE: Junior standing, consent of instructor and approval of department head. An individualized assignment arranged with an agency, business, or other organization to provide guided experience in the field
Repeatable up to 12 credits.

ENSC 499R LRES Capstone: 3 Credits (3 Lec)

PREREQUISITE: LRES major; Senior standing only. Senior capstone course. Must be graduating current or following semester. Provides disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge requiring integration and application of environmental science knowledge to natural resource management issues. Topic of course will change. Students will work both independently and in groups to research and critique the current literature related to science application. Course emphasizes writing and presentation skills, scientific methods, review of primary literature and critique of information from varied sources

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-You think of yourself as not just a student of environmental sciences, but as an Environmental Scientist
-Given a broad topic related to natural resource management, you can ask the relevant questions, and know how to find information to address those questions\\n
-An ability to critique the relative quality of information sources
-Capacity to deal with uncertainty in science and to negotiate conflicting interests when applying environmental science information to a resource management question\\n
-Ability to communicate, both orally and in writing, technical information to either an expert audience or a lay audience
-Practice working independently and in groups, and setting your own goals and work plans relative to completing a large project\\n
-Collaborate with others, by giving and receiving constructive feedback, and using that feedback to revise and improve your communication\\n
-An understanding of the role of scientific integrity for science students, practicing scientists, natural resource managers, and policy makers\\n