Environment Major - Water Environments and Ecosystems (B.Sc.(Ag.Env.Sc.)) (63 credits)
Offered by: Bieler School of Environment
Degree: Bachelor of Science (Agricultural and Environmental Sciences)
Program credit weight: 63
Program Description
The Major Environment - Water Environments and Ecosystems program is an introduction to the atmospheric processes as well as the anthropogenic processes that shape our water environments, and the interconnectedness between these environments and natural and human-built ecosystems. The program includes two streams in which to specialize: the Biological Stream focuses on the ecological facet of the water environment and the mechanisms regulating the different forms of life in water bodies; and the Physical Stream focuses on the physical facet of the water environment, and the transport and transformation mechanisms of water on the planet, from rivers to the ocean and atmosphere.
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 required and complementary courses.
Required Courses (21 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ATOC 215 | Oceans, Weather and Climate. | 3 |
Oceans, Weather and Climate. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An introduction to key physical and dynamical processes in the oceans and atmosphere. Topics typically include air-sea-ice interactions, laws of motion, the geostrophic and thermal wind relations, general circulation of the atmosphere and oceans, weather, radiative balance, climate sensitivity and variability, role of the atmosphere and oceans in climate. | ||
| ENVR 200 | The Global Environment. | 3 |
The Global Environment. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 A systems approach to study the different components of the environment involved in global climate change: the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere. The interactions among these components. Their role in global climate change. The human dimension to global change. | ||
| ENVR 201 | Society, Environment and Sustainability. | 3 |
Society, Environment and Sustainability. Terms offered: Fall 2025 This course deals with how scientific-technological, socio-economic, political-institutional and behavioural factors mediate society-environment interactions. Issues discussed include population and resources; consumption, impacts and institutions; integrating environmental values in societal decision-making; and the challenges associated with, and strategies for, promoting sustainability. Case studies in various sectors and contexts are used. | ||
| ENVR 202 | The Evolving Earth. | 3 |
The Evolving Earth. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Formation of the Earth and the evolution of life. How geological and biological change are the consequence of history, chance, and necessity acting over different scales of space and time. General principles governing the formation of modern landscapes and biotas. Effects of human activities on natural systems. | ||
| ENVR 203 | Knowledge, Ethics and Environment. | 3 |
Knowledge, Ethics and Environment. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Introduction to cultural perspectives on the environment: the influence of culture and cognition on perceptions of the natural world; conflicts in orders of knowledge (models, taxonomies, paradigms, theories, cosmologies), ethics (moral values, frameworks, dilemmas), and law (formal and customary, rights and obligations) regarding political dimensions of critical environments, resource use, and technologies. | ||
| ENVR 301 | Environmental Research Design. | 3 |
Environmental Research Design. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Techniques used in design and completion of environmental research projects. Problem definition, data sources and use of appropriate strategies and methodologies. Principles underlying research design are emphasized, including critical thinking, recognizing causal relationships, ideologies and bias in research, and when and where to seek expertise. | ||
| ENVR 400 | Environmental Thought. | 3 |
Environmental Thought. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Students work in interdisciplinary seminar groups on challenging philosophical, ethical, scientific and practical issues. They will explore cutting-edge ideas and grapple with the reconciliation of environmental imperatives and social, political and economic pragmatics. Activities include meeting practitioners, attending guest lectures, following directed readings, and organizing, leading and participating in seminars. | ||
Complementary Courses (42 credits)
Senior Research Project
3 credits from:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| AEBI 427 | Barbados Interdisciplinary Project. 1 | 6 |
Barbados Interdisciplinary Project. Terms offered: Summer 2025 The planning of projects and research activities related to tropical food, nutrition, or energy at the local, regional, or national scale in Barbados. Projects and activities designed in consultation with university instructors, government, NGO, or private partners, and prepared by teams of 2-3 students working cooperatively with these mentors. | ||
| ENVR 401 | Environmental Research. | 3 |
Environmental Research. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Students work in an interdisciplinary team on a real-world research project involving problem definition, methodology development, social, ethical and environmental impact assessment, execution of the study, and dissemination of results to the research community and to the people affected. Teams begin defining their projects during the preceding summer. | ||
| ENVR 451 | Research in Panama. | 6 |
Research in Panama. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Research projects will be developed by instructors in consultation with Panamanian universities, government agencies and non-governmental organizations. Project groups will consist of four to six students working with a Panamanian institution. Topics will be relevant to Panama: e.g., protection of the Canal watershed, economical alternatives to deforestation, etc. | ||
| FSCI 444 | Barbados Research Project. | 6 |
Barbados Research Project. Terms offered: Fall 2025 A research project that is supervised by McGill academic staff and is conducted in collaboration with local partners. The project topic must relate to the field of sustainability relating to the Caribbean or Barbados specifically. | ||
| GEOG 451 | Research in Society and Development in Africa. 1 | 3 |
Research in Society and Development in Africa. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Three intersecting components: 1) core development themes including culture change, environmental conservation, water, health, development (urban and rural), governance and conflict resolution, 2) research techniques for topics related to core themes, including ethics, risk, field methods and data analysis, 3) field documentation, scientific recording and communication. | ||
- 1
3 credits will be applied to the program; extra credits will count as electives.
Hydrology and Ecology
3 credits from:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| BREE 217 | Hydrology and Water Resources. | 3 |
Hydrology and Water Resources. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Introduction to water resources and hydrologic cycle. Precipitation and hydrologic frequency analysis. Soil water processes, infiltration theory and modeling. Evapotranspiration estimation methods and crop water requirements. Surface runoff estimation as a function of land use modifications. Estimation of peak runoff rates. Unit hydrograph. Design of open channels and vegetated waterways. | ||
| GEOG 322 | Environmental Hydrology. | 3 |
Environmental Hydrology. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Quantitative, experimental study of the principles governing the movement of water at or near the Earth's surface and how the research relates to the chemistry and biology of ecosystems. | ||
3 credits from:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| BIOL 308 | Ecological Dynamics. | 3 |
Ecological Dynamics. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Principles of population, community, and ecosystem dynamics: population growth and regulation, species interactions, dynamics of competitive interactions and of predator/prey systems; evolutionary dynamics. | ||
| ENVB 305 | Population and Community Ecology. | 3 |
Population and Community Ecology. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Interactions between organisms and their environment; historical and current perspectives in applied and theoretical population and community ecology. Principles of population dynamics, feedback loops, and population regulation. Development and structure of communities; competition, predation and food web dynamics. Biodiversity science in theory and practice. | ||
Statistics
3 credits from:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| AEMA 310 | Statistical Methods 1. | 3 |
Statistical Methods 1. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Measures of central tendency and dispersion; binomial and Poisson distributions; normal, chi-square, Student's t and Fisher-Snedecor F distributions; estimation and hypothesis testing; simple linear regression and correlation; analysis of variance for simple experimental designs. | ||
| GEOG 202 | Statistics and Spatial Analysis. | 3 |
Statistics and Spatial Analysis. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Exploratory data analysis, univariate descriptive and inferential statistics, non-parametric statistics, correlation and simple regression. Problems associated with analysing spatial data such as the 'modifiable areal unit problem' and spatial autocorrelation. Statistics measuring spatial pattern in point, line and polygon data. | ||
| MATH 203 | Principles of Statistics 1. | 3 |
Principles of Statistics 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Examples of statistical data and the use of graphical means to summarize the data. Basic distributions arising in the natural and behavioural sciences. The logical meaning of a test of significance and a confidence interval. Tests of significance and confidence intervals in the one and two sample setting (means, variances and proportions). | ||
Note: Credit for statistics courses is subject to certain restrictions. Student in the Faculty of Science should consult "Course Overlap" information in the "Course Requirements" section of the Catalogue for the Faculty of Science.
Field Course
3 credits from:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| BIOL 331 | Ecology/Behaviour Field Course. | 3 |
Ecology/Behaviour Field Course. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Methods of sampling natural populations. Testing hypotheses in nature. | ||
| BIOL 334D1 | Applied Tropical Ecology. | 1.5 |
Applied Tropical Ecology. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Relevant to agriculture, forestry, fisheries and conservation of natural resources. Field component taught at the University's Bellairs Research Institute in Barbados, for two weeks in early May. The course is organized in a series of small-group field projects of 2-3 days each. Interested students should check the course website, attend the full information session and fill out an application form. | ||
| BIOL 334D2 | Applied Tropical Ecology. | 1.5 |
Applied Tropical Ecology. Terms offered: Summer 2025 See BIOL 334D1 for course description. | ||
| BIOL 335 | Marine Mammals. | 3 |
Marine Mammals. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Biology of marine mammals with special emphasis on seals and whales of the Bay of Fundy. Taught at the Huntsman Marine Science Centre, St. Andrews, N.B., for two weeks in August. The course combines lectures, laboratory exercises, field trips, and individual projects. | ||
| BIOL 343 | Biodiversity in the Caribean. | 3 |
Biodiversity in the Caribean. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Biodiversity loss and the measure of ecological integrity of ecosystems, patterns of diversification and evolution of terrestrial and oceanic biotas in the Caribbean. | ||
| GEOG 495 | Field Studies - Physical Geography. | 3 |
Field Studies - Physical Geography. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Field research projects in physical geography. Held locally in Monteregian or Eastern Township regions. The course is organised around field projects designed to formulate and test scientific hypotheses in a physical geography discipline. May Summer session. | ||
| WILD 401 | Fisheries and Wildlife Management. | 3 |
Fisheries and Wildlife Management. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Principles of fisheries and wildlife management are considered and current practices of research and management are discussed. | ||
27 credits from one of the following two streams:
Biological Stream
Social Sciences and Policy
3-6 credits from:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| AGEC 333 | Resource Economics. | 3 |
Resource Economics. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The role of resources in the environment, use of resources, and management of economic resources within the firm or organization. Problem-solving, case studies involving private and public decision-making in organizations are utilized. | ||
| ANSC 555 | The Use and Welfare of Animals. | 3 |
The Use and Welfare of Animals. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Understanding the roles in which animals are used by Society, especially in food production, companionship, research, and recreation; application of the scientific approaches that are used in assessing and improving animal welfare; and use of ethical approaches that are invoked in the use of animals, often in controversial contexts. An interdisciplinary course, based on active participation and discussion-method learning. | ||
| ANTH 339 | Ecological Anthropology. | 3 |
Ecological Anthropology. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Intensive study of theories and cases in ecological anthropology. Theories are examined and tested through comparative case-study analysis. Cultural constructions of "nature" and "environment" are compared and analyzed. Systems of resource management and conflicts over the use of resources are studied in depth. | ||
| ANTH 418 | Environment and Development. | 3 |
Environment and Development. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Advanced study of the environmental crisis in developing and advanced industrial nations, with emphasis on the social and cultural dimensions of natural resource management and environmental change. Each year, the seminar will focus on a particular set of issues, delineated by type of resource, geographic region, or analytical problem. | ||
| COMS 360 | Environmental Communication. | 3 |
Environmental Communication. Terms offered: Fall 2025 A survey of contemporary approaches to communication, media and environment in the field of communication studies. Focus on critical attention on media, communication and knowledge practices concerning environmental information, issues and controversies, as well as the environmental impacts of media technologies, infrastructures and practices. Topics include public communication of science and environmental information (journalism, governments; social movements), climate change communication, media materialities and toxicities (energy, pollution, waste), environmental racism and environmental justice, environment and disability, | ||
| ECON 225 | Economics of the Environment. | 3 |
Economics of the Environment. Terms offered: Winter 2026 A study of the application of economic theory to questions of environmental policy. Particular attention will be given to the measurement and regulation of pollution, congestion and waste and other environmental aspects of specific economies. | ||
| ECON 326 | Ecological Economics. | 3 |
Ecological Economics. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Macroeconomic and structural aspects of the ecological crisis. A course in which subjects discussed include the conflict between economic growth and the laws of thermodynamics; the search for alternative economic indicators; the fossil fuels crisis; and "green'' fiscal policy. | ||
| ENVR 421 | Montreal: Environmental History and Sustainability. | 3 |
Montreal: Environmental History and Sustainability. Terms offered: Summer 2025 This course will focus on the role of place and history in the cities in which we live and in our understanding of sustainability. Each year, students will work to develop a historical reconstruction of the natural environment of Montreal and of its links to the cultural landscape, building on the work of previous cohorts of students. | ||
| ENVB 437 | Assessing Environmental Impact. | 3 |
Assessing Environmental Impact. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Principles and practice of Environmental Assessment (EA) in Canada and internationally. Exploration of issues surrounding impact assessment for sustainable development in different sectors, including their limitations. | ||
| ENVR 422 | Montreal Urban Sustainability Analysis. | 3 |
Montreal Urban Sustainability Analysis. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Applied and experience-based learning opportunities are employed to critically assess Montreal as a sustainable city through research, discussion, and field trips. The urban environment is considered through various specific dimensions, ranging from: waste, energy, urban agriculture, green spaces and design, or transportation. | ||
| GEOG 302 | Environmental Management 1. | 3 |
Environmental Management 1. Terms offered: Fall 2025 An ecological analysis of the physical and biotic components of natural resource systems. Emphasis on scientific, technological and institutional aspects of environmental management. Study of the use of biological resources and of the impact of individual processes. | ||
| GEOG 340 | Sustainability in the Caribbean. | 3 |
Sustainability in the Caribbean. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The local environmental, social, historical, political and economic context of Barbados and the Caribbean. The small island developing States (SIDS), and why those nations are more vulnerable to global environmental challenges. The 17 Sustainability Development Goals of the United Nations, with a focus on the leadership role played by Barbados for the entire Caribbean region. | ||
| GEOG 404 | Environmental Management 2. | 3 |
Environmental Management 2. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Practical application of environmental planning, analysis and management techniques with reference to the needs and problems of developing areas. Special challenges posed by cultural differences and traditional resource systems are discussed. This course involves practical field work in a developing area (Kenya or Panama). | ||
| GEOG 498 | Humans in Tropical Environments. | 3 |
Humans in Tropical Environments. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Focus on understanding of inter-relations between humans and neotropical environments represented in Panama. Study of contemporary rural landscapes, their origins, development and change. Impacts of economic growth and inequality, social organization, and politics on natural resource use and environmental degradation. Site visits and field exercises in peasant/colonist, Amerindian, and plantation communities. | ||
| GEOG 530 | Global Land and Water Resources. | 3 |
Global Land and Water Resources. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Linkage of physical processes (hydrology and ecosystems) with issues of societal and socio-economic relevance (land, food, and water use appropriation for human well-being). Application of a holistic perspective on land, food and water issues in an international setting, highlighting linkages, feedbacks and trade-offs in an Earth system context. | ||
| HIST 510 | Environmental History of Latin America (Field). | 3 |
Environmental History of Latin America (Field). Terms offered: Winter 2026 Human-nature interactions over different scales of time in Latin America (with an emphasis on neo-tropical environments) and the application of the historical perspective to contemporary environmental issues, including historiography and methodology; cultures of environmental knowledge. | ||
| POLI 345 | International Organizations. | 3 |
International Organizations. Terms offered: Winter 2026 The politics and processes of global governance in the 21st century, with a special emphasis on the United Nations system. | ||
| POLI 350 | Global Environmental Politics. | 3 |
Global Environmental Politics. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Environmental problems like climate change, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and ocean acidification transcend national borders. Solving these problems will require global cooperation on an unprecedented level. This course will explore the challenges of contemporary global environmental governance and the innovative solutions being advanced at the community, municipal, provincial, national, and international levels. | ||
| WCOM 314 | Communicating Science. | 3 |
Communicating Science. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Production of written and oral assignments (in English) designed to communicate scientific problems and findings to varied audiences Analysis of the disciplinary conventions of scientific discourse in terms of audience, purpose, organization, and style; comparative rhetorical analysis of academic and popular genres, including abstracts, lab reports, research papers, print and online journalism. | ||
| WILD 421 | Wildlife Conservation. | 3 |
Wildlife Conservation. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Study of current controversial issues focusing on wildlife conservation. Topics include: animal rights, exotic species, ecotourism, urban wildlife, multi-use of national parks, harvesting of wildlife, biological controls, and endangered species. | ||
Water Environments and Habitats
12-15 credits from:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| BIOL 310 | Biodiversity and Ecosystems. | 3 |
Biodiversity and Ecosystems. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Ecological bases of the natural causes and consequences of current global environmental changes, including how biodiversity and ecosystem processes are defined and measured, how they vary in space and time, how they are affected by physical and biological factors, and how they affect each other and human societies. | ||
| BIOL 342 | Global Change Biology of Aquatic Ecosystems. | 3 |
Global Change Biology of Aquatic Ecosystems. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An introduction to freshwater and marine biology. Topics include the structure and functioning of the major aquatic ecosystems and how these aspects are affected by global change drivers. | ||
| BIOL 432 | Limnology. | 3 |
Limnology. Terms offered: Fall 2025 A study of the physical, chemical and biological properties of lakes and other inland waters, with emphasis on their functioning as systems. | ||
| BIOL 441 | Biological Oceanography. | 3 |
Biological Oceanography. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An introduction to how the ocean functions biologically: biology and ecology of marine plankton; regulation, extent and fate of production in the sea. | ||
| BIOL 465 | Conservation Biology. | 3 |
Conservation Biology. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Discussion of relevant theoretical and applied issues in conservation biology. Topics: biodiversity, population viability analysis, community dynamics, biology of rarity, extinction, habitat fragmentation, social issues. | ||
| BIOL 540 | Ecology of Species Invasions. 1 | 3 |
Ecology of Species Invasions. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Causes and consequences of biological invasion, as well as risk assessment methods and management strategies for dealing with invasive species. | ||
| BIOL 553 | Neotropical Environments. | 3 |
Neotropical Environments. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Ecology revisited in view of tropical conditions. Exploring species richness. Sampling and measuring biodiversity. Conservation status of ecosystems, communities and species. Indigenous knowledge. | ||
| BREE 533 | Water Quality Management. | 3 |
Water Quality Management. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The water phases of terrestrial ecological systems and the processes that link them. Physical, chemical, and biological properties of water, and water quality standards. The fate and transport of pollutants in rivers and streams, lakes, and wetlands. Methods to quantify soil carbon and nitrogen cycle to predict nutrient leaching. Impacts of human activities (e.g., agricultural drainage) on water quality and measures to improve drainage water quality. Assess the effectiveness of proposed engineering measures or management practices in improving or maintaining water quality of a real site/water body using numerical methods or a computer modelling approach. | ||
| ENVB 210 | The Biophysical Environment. 1 | 3 |
The Biophysical Environment. Terms offered: Fall 2025 With reference to the ecosystems in the St Lawrence lowlands, the principles and processes governing climate-landform-water-soil-vegetation systems and their interactions will be examined in lecture and laboratory. Emphasis on the natural environment as an integrated system. | ||
| ENVB 410 | Ecosystem Ecology. | 3 |
Ecosystem Ecology. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Biotic and abiotic processes that control the flows of energy, nutrients and water through ecosystems; emergent system properties; approaches to analyzing complex systems. Labs include collection and multivariate analysis of field data. | ||
| ENVB 500 | Advanced Topics in Ecotoxicology. | 3 |
Advanced Topics in Ecotoxicology. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Exploring the impact of environmental chemicals on biological organisms in an ecological context. Basic topics in ecotoxicology, such as source and fate, routes of exposure, bioavailability, dose-response, biomarkers, and risk assessment will be covered from both theoretical and applied perspectives. The processes by which pollutants are tested, regulated, and monitored will be critically examined. | ||
| ENVR 540 | Ecology of Species Invasions. 1 | 3 |
Ecology of Species Invasions. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Causes and consequences of biological invasion, as well as risk assessment methods and management strategies for dealing with invasive species. | ||
| GEOG 470 | Wetlands. | 3 |
Wetlands. Terms offered: Fall 2025 An examination of the structure, function and utility of wetlands. Topics include the fluxes of energy and water, wetland biogeochemistry, plant ecology in freshwater and coastal wetlands and wetlands use, conservation and restoration. Field trip(s) are envisaged to illustrate issues covered in class. | ||
| GEOG 305 | Soils and Environment. 1 | 3 |
Soils and Environment. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Discussion of the major properties of soils; soil formation, classification and mapping; land capability assessment; the role and response of soils in natural and disturbed environments (e.g. global change, ecosystem disturbance). | ||
| MICR 331 | Microbial Ecology. | 3 |
Microbial Ecology. Terms offered: Winter 2026 The ecology of microorganisms, primarily bacteria and archaea, and their roles in biogeochemical cycles. Microbial interactions with the environment, plants, animals and other microbes emphasizing the underlying genetics and physiology. Diversity, evolution (microbial phylogenetics) and the application of molecular biology in microbial ecology. | ||
| NRSC 333 | Pollution and Bioremediation. | 3 |
Pollution and Bioremediation. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The environmental contaminants which cause pollution; sources, amounts and transport of pollutants in water, air and soil; waste management. | ||
| PARA 410 | Environment and Infection. | 3 |
Environment and Infection. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Infectious pathogens of humans and animals and their impact on the global environment are considered. The central tenet is that infectious pathogens are environmental risk factors. The course considers their impact on the human condition and juxtaposes the impact of control and treatment measures and environmental change. | ||
| SOIL 535 | Soil Ecology. | 3 |
Soil Ecology. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Exploration of the unique soil habitat for organisms with a focus on the variables that affect the abundance, diversity and interactions of soil biota and, in turn, their influence on soil physicochemical properties, biogeochemical cycles and other factors impacting ecosystem sustainability. Topics include survey of soil fauna, soil food webs, microbial ecology, biological carbon and nitrogen cycling, plant-soil interactions, and the effects of human activities and management on soil ecology, including synthesizing concepts and a critical analysis and interpretation of primary scientific literature in soil ecology. | ||
| WILD 302 | Fish Ecology. | 3 |
Fish Ecology. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Introduction to the biology and ecology of freshwater and marine fishes. Topics include taxonomy, physiology, biogeography, competition, predation, fishing, and conservation. Lab exercises and field trips emphasize familiarity with local fishes and their ecological interactions. | ||
- 1
You may take only one of: BIOL 540 or ENVR 540; ENVB 210 or GEOG 305
Surface and Atmospheric Processes
6-9 credits from:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ATOC 214 | Introduction: Physics of the Atmosphere. | 3 |
Introduction: Physics of the Atmosphere. Terms offered: Fall 2025 An introduction to key physical processes operating in the atmosphere, designed for students in science and engineering. Topics typically include: composition of the atmosphere; vertical structure; heat transfer; solar and terrestrial radiation and Earth's energy balance; seasonal and daily temperature changes; humidity and the formation of clouds and precipitation; stability of tropospheric air layers; applications of adiabatic charts. | ||
| ATOC 219 | Introduction to Atmospheric Chemistry. 1 | 3 |
Introduction to Atmospheric Chemistry. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An introduction to the basic topics in atmospheric chemistry. The fundamentals of the chemical composition of the atmosphere and its chemical reactions. Selected topics such as smog chamber, acid rain, and ozone hole will be examined. | ||
| ATOC 341 | Caribbean Climate and Weather. | 3 |
Caribbean Climate and Weather. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The climate system and ongoing global change, ocean and atmosphere circulation and future trends in the tropics; local climate variability and dynamics, extreme weather events in the Caribbean | ||
| BIOL 515 | Advances in Aquatic Ecology. | 3 |
Advances in Aquatic Ecology. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Aquatic ecology and the major issues challenging the field. | ||
| BREE 509 | Hydrologic Systems and Modelling. | 3 |
Hydrologic Systems and Modelling. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Hydrologic cycle in the nature and how to quantitatively describe those processes using models. The fundamentals of hydrology including basic concepts, precipitation, snow and snowmelt, evapotranspiration, subsurface flow, infiltration and soil water movement, and runoff and streamflow. Equivalent attention to theories and hands-on practices on model application. How to set up and execute weather data driven physical based models, both at a point-scale and a watershed scale, to predict snowmelt, evapotranspiration, infiltration, soil water redistribution, subsurface drainage, runoff, and stream flow in hydrologic systems. | ||
| CHEM 219 | Introduction to Atmospheric Chemistry. 1 | 3 |
Introduction to Atmospheric Chemistry. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An introduction to the basic topics in atmospheric chemistry. The fundamentals of the chemical composition of the atmosphere and its chemical reactions. Selected topics such as; a smog chamber, acid rain, and the ozone hole, will be examined. | ||
| CHEM 267 | Introductory Chemical Analysis. | 3 |
Introductory Chemical Analysis. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Qualitative and quantitative analysis. A survey of methods of analysis including theory and practice of semimicro qualitative analysis and representative gravimetric, volumetric and instrumental methods. The laboratory component includes introductory experiments in analytical chemistry emphasizing classical and instrumental methods of quantitative analysis. | ||
| ENVB 529 | GIS for Natural Resource Management. 1 | 3 |
GIS for Natural Resource Management. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Applications of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial analysis techniques to the presentation and analysis of ecological information, including sources and capture of spatial data; characterizing, transforming, displaying spatial data; and spatial analysis to solve resource management problems. | ||
| ENVB 530 | Advanced GIS for Natural Resource Management. | 3 |
Advanced GIS for Natural Resource Management. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An advanced spatial analysis course that uses rapidly developing techniques in GIS and remote sensing to solve problems in natural resource management. Focuses on controlling spatial operations through programming. | ||
| EPSC 220 | Principles of Geochemistry. | 3 |
Principles of Geochemistry. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Basic concepts in geochemistry and the application of geochemical principles of chemistry to geological subdisciplines. Particular emphasis on origin of elements, controls on their distribution in Earth and cosmos, isotopes, organic geochemistry and water chemistry. Application of phase diagrams to geology. | ||
| EPSC 325 | Environmental Geochemistry. | 3 |
Environmental Geochemistry. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The basic concepts and calculations needed to quantitatively understand the geochemical processes occurring between minerals and waters in Earth’s near-surface environment. The important concepts of thermodynamics and kinetics will be exemplified using examples that concentrate on reactions between minerals and water and their impact on the environment. | ||
| EPSC 519 | Isotopes in Earth and Environmental Science. | 3 |
Isotopes in Earth and Environmental Science. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The theory and application of stable and radioactive isotope measurements in the Earth and environmental sciences, including applications in geology, hydrology, climatology, biogeochemistry, and ecology. | ||
| EPSC 522 | Advanced Environmental Hydrology. 1 | 3 |
Advanced Environmental Hydrology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Traditional and emerging theories of dominant runoff generation processes. Streamflow generation. Surface and near-surface solute and contaminant transport. Concentration-discharge relationships. Geochemical mixing models. Dyes and biological tracers of water. Isotope ecohydrology. Water source and water age estimation approaches. Development, execution, and evaluation of process-based watershed models. Case studies from forested, agricultural and periurban watersheds. | ||
| GEOG 201 | Introductory Geo-Information Science. 1 | 3 |
Introductory Geo-Information Science. Terms offered: Fall 2025 An introduction to Geographic Information Systems. The systematic management of spatial data. The use and construction of maps. The use of microcomputers and software for mapping and statistical work. Air photo and topographic map analyses. | ||
| GEOG 308 | Remote Sensing for Earth Observation. | 3 |
Remote Sensing for Earth Observation. Terms offered: Fall 2025 A conceptual view of remote sensing and the underlying physical principles. Covers ground-based, aerial, satellite systems, and the electromagnetic spectrum, from visible to microwave. Emphasis on application of remotely sensed data in geography including land cover change and ecological processes. | ||
| GEOG 505 | Global Biogeochemistry. | 3 |
Global Biogeochemistry. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An examination of the storage, transfers and cycling of major elements and substances, with an emphasis on the global scale and the linkages between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere. | ||
| GEOG 506 | Advanced Geographic Information Science. | 3 |
Advanced Geographic Information Science. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Critically analyse major themes in geographic information science and draw out the practical ramifications for spatial technologies and research. Topics such as spatial interoperability, data quality, scale, visualization, location based services and ontologies are covered. | ||
| GEOG 522 | Advanced Environmental Hydrology. 1 | 3 |
Advanced Environmental Hydrology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Traditional and emerging theories of dominant runoff generation processes. Streamflow generation. Surface and near-surface solute and contaminant transport. Concentration-discharge relationships. Geochemical mixing models. Dyes and biological tracers of water. Isotope ecohydrology. Water source and water age estimation approaches. Development, execution, and evaluation of process-based watershed models. Case studies from forested, agricultural and periurban watersheds. | ||
| GEOG 550 | Historical Ecology Techniques. | 3 |
Historical Ecology Techniques. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Principles and methods of Quaternary paleoecology and vegetation reconstruction. Examination of ecosystem response to human disturbance and environmental change. | ||
- 1
You may take only one of: ATOC 219 or CHEM 219; ENVB 529 or GEOG 201; EPSC 522 or GEOG 522.
Physical Stream
Atmosphere and Thermodynamics
6 credits from:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ATOC 214 | Introduction: Physics of the Atmosphere. | 3 |
Introduction: Physics of the Atmosphere. Terms offered: Fall 2025 An introduction to key physical processes operating in the atmosphere, designed for students in science and engineering. Topics typically include: composition of the atmosphere; vertical structure; heat transfer; solar and terrestrial radiation and Earth's energy balance; seasonal and daily temperature changes; humidity and the formation of clouds and precipitation; stability of tropospheric air layers; applications of adiabatic charts. | ||
| ATOC 315 | Thermodynamics and Convection. | 3 |
Thermodynamics and Convection. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Buoyancy, stability, and vertical oscillations. Dry and moist adiabatic processes. Resulting dry and precipitating convective circulations from the small scale to the global scale. Mesoscale precipitation systems from the cell to convective complexes. Severe convection, downbursts, mesocyclones. | ||
Advanced Hydrology
3 credits from:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| BREE 509 | Hydrologic Systems and Modelling. | 3 |
Hydrologic Systems and Modelling. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Hydrologic cycle in the nature and how to quantitatively describe those processes using models. The fundamentals of hydrology including basic concepts, precipitation, snow and snowmelt, evapotranspiration, subsurface flow, infiltration and soil water movement, and runoff and streamflow. Equivalent attention to theories and hands-on practices on model application. How to set up and execute weather data driven physical based models, both at a point-scale and a watershed scale, to predict snowmelt, evapotranspiration, infiltration, soil water redistribution, subsurface drainage, runoff, and stream flow in hydrologic systems. | ||
| BREE 533 | Water Quality Management. | 3 |
Water Quality Management. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The water phases of terrestrial ecological systems and the processes that link them. Physical, chemical, and biological properties of water, and water quality standards. The fate and transport of pollutants in rivers and streams, lakes, and wetlands. Methods to quantify soil carbon and nitrogen cycle to predict nutrient leaching. Impacts of human activities (e.g., agricultural drainage) on water quality and measures to improve drainage water quality. Assess the effectiveness of proposed engineering measures or management practices in improving or maintaining water quality of a real site/water body using numerical methods or a computer modelling approach. | ||
| EPSC 522 | Advanced Environmental Hydrology. | 3 |
Advanced Environmental Hydrology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Traditional and emerging theories of dominant runoff generation processes. Streamflow generation. Surface and near-surface solute and contaminant transport. Concentration-discharge relationships. Geochemical mixing models. Dyes and biological tracers of water. Isotope ecohydrology. Water source and water age estimation approaches. Development, execution, and evaluation of process-based watershed models. Case studies from forested, agricultural and periurban watersheds. | ||
| EPSC 549 | Hydrogeology. | 3 |
Hydrogeology. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Introduction to groundwater flow through porous media. Notions of fluid potential and hydraulic head. Darcy flux and Darcy's Law. Physical properties of porous media and their measurement. Equation of groundwater flow. Flow systems. Hydraulics of pumping and recharging wells. Notions of hydrology. Groundwater quality and contamination. Physical processes of contaminant transport. | ||
| GEOG 522 | Advanced Environmental Hydrology. | 3 |
Advanced Environmental Hydrology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Traditional and emerging theories of dominant runoff generation processes. Streamflow generation. Surface and near-surface solute and contaminant transport. Concentration-discharge relationships. Geochemical mixing models. Dyes and biological tracers of water. Isotope ecohydrology. Water source and water age estimation approaches. Development, execution, and evaluation of process-based watershed models. Case studies from forested, agricultural and periurban watersheds. | ||
Intermediate Calculus
3 credits from:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| AEMA 202 | Intermediate Calculus. | 3 |
Intermediate Calculus. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Methods of differential and integral calculus forthe study of multivariable functions. Calculus of parametric and polar curves, vectors and geometry of space, vector functions, partial derivatives, multiple integrals, and their applications. | ||
| MATH 222 | Calculus 3. | 3 |
Calculus 3. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Taylor series, Taylor's theorem in one and several variables. Review of vector geometry. Partial differentiation, directional derivative. Extreme of functions of 2 or 3 variables. Parametric curves and arc length. Polar and spherical coordinates. Multiple integrals. | ||
Engineering/Mathematics/Hydrology
6-9 credits from:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| AEMA 305 | Differential Equations. 1 | 3 |
Differential Equations. Terms offered: Winter 2026 First and second order differential equations, Laplace transforms, numerical solutions, systems of differential equations, series solutions, applications to biological, chemical and engineering systems, use of computer-based mathematical tools. | ||
| ATOC 309 | Weather Radars and Satellites. | 3 |
Weather Radars and Satellites. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Basic notions of radiative transfer and applications of satellite and radar data to mesoscale and synoptic-scale systems are discussed. Emphasis will be put on the contribution of remote sensing to atmospheric and oceanic sciences. | ||
| BREE 416 | Engineering for Land Development. | 3 |
Engineering for Land Development. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Engineering aspects of land stewardship and water resource conservation, including: introduction to the hydrologic cycle and agricultural water use; computation of soil loss by water erosion; conservation farming practices; reservoirs and embankments; water and sediment control structures; stream restoration and water supply; wetlands and wetland design; irrigation principles and design; pumps and pumping; introduction to drainage and water table management. | ||
| BREE 420 | Engineering for Sustainability. | 3 |
Engineering for Sustainability. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Principles and practices of engineering for sustainability. Emphasis on environmental, economic, social, management and policy factors that should be incorporated into sustainable approaches to engineering and design. Topics will include: sustainability metrics, systems thinking, stakeholder engagement, and leading change for sustainability within companies. | ||
| BREE 506 | Advances in Drainage Management. 1 | 3 |
Advances in Drainage Management. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Land drainage in relation to soils and crops. Design of regional drainage systems, stability of ditches, ice problems. Design of subsurface drainage systems. Theories of flow into drain tubes. Hydraulics of wells. Drainage of irrigated lands. Water table control. | ||
| BREE 509 | Hydrologic Systems and Modelling. | 3 |
Hydrologic Systems and Modelling. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Hydrologic cycle in the nature and how to quantitatively describe those processes using models. The fundamentals of hydrology including basic concepts, precipitation, snow and snowmelt, evapotranspiration, subsurface flow, infiltration and soil water movement, and runoff and streamflow. Equivalent attention to theories and hands-on practices on model application. How to set up and execute weather data driven physical based models, both at a point-scale and a watershed scale, to predict snowmelt, evapotranspiration, infiltration, soil water redistribution, subsurface drainage, runoff, and stream flow in hydrologic systems. | ||
| BREE 510 | Watershed Systems Management. | 3 |
Watershed Systems Management. Terms offered: Fall 2025 A holistic examination of methods in watershed management with a focus on integrated water resources management (IWRM). Topics include: integration, participatory management, water resources assessment, modeling, planning, adaptive management, transboundary management, and transition management. | ||
| BREE 533 | Water Quality Management. | 3 |
Water Quality Management. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The water phases of terrestrial ecological systems and the processes that link them. Physical, chemical, and biological properties of water, and water quality standards. The fate and transport of pollutants in rivers and streams, lakes, and wetlands. Methods to quantify soil carbon and nitrogen cycle to predict nutrient leaching. Impacts of human activities (e.g., agricultural drainage) on water quality and measures to improve drainage water quality. Assess the effectiveness of proposed engineering measures or management practices in improving or maintaining water quality of a real site/water body using numerical methods or a computer modelling approach. | ||
| CIVE 323 | Hydrology and Water Resources. | 3 |
Hydrology and Water Resources. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Precipitation, evaporation and transpiration. Streamflow, storage reservoirs, flood routing. Groundwater hydrology. Ecohydrology. Statistical analysis in hydrology, stochastic modelling. Simulations using hydrologic models. Case studies in flood damage mitigation, surface and ground water management, and water-energy-food nexus. | ||
| ENVB 210 | The Biophysical Environment. 1 | 3 |
The Biophysical Environment. Terms offered: Fall 2025 With reference to the ecosystems in the St Lawrence lowlands, the principles and processes governing climate-landform-water-soil-vegetation systems and their interactions will be examined in lecture and laboratory. Emphasis on the natural environment as an integrated system. | ||
| ENVB 529 | GIS for Natural Resource Management. 1 | 3 |
GIS for Natural Resource Management. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Applications of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial analysis techniques to the presentation and analysis of ecological information, including sources and capture of spatial data; characterizing, transforming, displaying spatial data; and spatial analysis to solve resource management problems. | ||
| ENVB 530 | Advanced GIS for Natural Resource Management. 1 | 3 |
Advanced GIS for Natural Resource Management. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An advanced spatial analysis course that uses rapidly developing techniques in GIS and remote sensing to solve problems in natural resource management. Focuses on controlling spatial operations through programming. | ||
| EPSC 522 | Advanced Environmental Hydrology. 1 | 3 |
Advanced Environmental Hydrology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Traditional and emerging theories of dominant runoff generation processes. Streamflow generation. Surface and near-surface solute and contaminant transport. Concentration-discharge relationships. Geochemical mixing models. Dyes and biological tracers of water. Isotope ecohydrology. Water source and water age estimation approaches. Development, execution, and evaluation of process-based watershed models. Case studies from forested, agricultural and periurban watersheds. | ||
| EPSC 549 | Hydrogeology. | 3 |
Hydrogeology. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Introduction to groundwater flow through porous media. Notions of fluid potential and hydraulic head. Darcy flux and Darcy's Law. Physical properties of porous media and their measurement. Equation of groundwater flow. Flow systems. Hydraulics of pumping and recharging wells. Notions of hydrology. Groundwater quality and contamination. Physical processes of contaminant transport. | ||
| GEOG 201 | Introductory Geo-Information Science. 1 | 3 |
Introductory Geo-Information Science. Terms offered: Fall 2025 An introduction to Geographic Information Systems. The systematic management of spatial data. The use and construction of maps. The use of microcomputers and software for mapping and statistical work. Air photo and topographic map analyses. | ||
| GEOG 305 | Soils and Environment. 1 | 3 |
Soils and Environment. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Discussion of the major properties of soils; soil formation, classification and mapping; land capability assessment; the role and response of soils in natural and disturbed environments (e.g. global change, ecosystem disturbance). | ||
| GEOG 308 | Remote Sensing for Earth Observation. | 3 |
Remote Sensing for Earth Observation. Terms offered: Fall 2025 A conceptual view of remote sensing and the underlying physical principles. Covers ground-based, aerial, satellite systems, and the electromagnetic spectrum, from visible to microwave. Emphasis on application of remotely sensed data in geography including land cover change and ecological processes. | ||
| GEOG 314 | Geospatial Analysis. | 3 |
Geospatial Analysis. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Overview of both the theoretical and applied aspects of geographic information science and systems. Topics will include spatial analysis techniques, geographic models as abstractions of the real world, spatial data manipulation and management, and conceptual issues related to geographic data and technology. Introduction to a number of leading commercial software including ESRI’s ArcGIS Pro. | ||
| GEOG 506 | Advanced Geographic Information Science. 1 | 3 |
Advanced Geographic Information Science. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Critically analyse major themes in geographic information science and draw out the practical ramifications for spatial technologies and research. Topics such as spatial interoperability, data quality, scale, visualization, location based services and ontologies are covered. | ||
| GEOG 522 | Advanced Environmental Hydrology. 1 | 3 |
Advanced Environmental Hydrology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Traditional and emerging theories of dominant runoff generation processes. Streamflow generation. Surface and near-surface solute and contaminant transport. Concentration-discharge relationships. Geochemical mixing models. Dyes and biological tracers of water. Isotope ecohydrology. Water source and water age estimation approaches. Development, execution, and evaluation of process-based watershed models. Case studies from forested, agricultural and periurban watersheds. | ||
| MATH 315 | Ordinary Differential Equations. | 3 |
Ordinary Differential Equations. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 First order ordinary differential equations including elementary numerical methods. Linear differential equations. Laplace transforms. Series solutions. | ||
| SOIL 315 | Soil Nutrient Management. 1 | 3 |
Soil Nutrient Management. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Plant nutrients in the soil, influence of soil properties on nutrient absorption and plant growth, use of organic and inorganic fertilizers. | ||
- 1
You may take only one of: ENVB 529 or GEOG 201; ENVB 530 or GEOG 506; ENVB 210 or GEOG 305; AEMA 305 or MATH 315; EPSC 522 or GEOG 522.
Marine and Freshwater Biology
6-9 credits from:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| BIOL 310 | Biodiversity and Ecosystems. | 3 |
Biodiversity and Ecosystems. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Ecological bases of the natural causes and consequences of current global environmental changes, including how biodiversity and ecosystem processes are defined and measured, how they vary in space and time, how they are affected by physical and biological factors, and how they affect each other and human societies. | ||
| BIOL 342 | Global Change Biology of Aquatic Ecosystems. | 3 |
Global Change Biology of Aquatic Ecosystems. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An introduction to freshwater and marine biology. Topics include the structure and functioning of the major aquatic ecosystems and how these aspects are affected by global change drivers. | ||
| BIOL 432 | Limnology. | 3 |
Limnology. Terms offered: Fall 2025 A study of the physical, chemical and biological properties of lakes and other inland waters, with emphasis on their functioning as systems. | ||
| BIOL 441 | Biological Oceanography. | 3 |
Biological Oceanography. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An introduction to how the ocean functions biologically: biology and ecology of marine plankton; regulation, extent and fate of production in the sea. | ||
| BIOL 465 | Conservation Biology. | 3 |
Conservation Biology. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Discussion of relevant theoretical and applied issues in conservation biology. Topics: biodiversity, population viability analysis, community dynamics, biology of rarity, extinction, habitat fragmentation, social issues. | ||
| BIOL 553 | Neotropical Environments. | 3 |
Neotropical Environments. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Ecology revisited in view of tropical conditions. Exploring species richness. Sampling and measuring biodiversity. Conservation status of ecosystems, communities and species. Indigenous knowledge. | ||
| ENVB 410 | Ecosystem Ecology. | 3 |
Ecosystem Ecology. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Biotic and abiotic processes that control the flows of energy, nutrients and water through ecosystems; emergent system properties; approaches to analyzing complex systems. Labs include collection and multivariate analysis of field data. | ||
| GEOG 470 | Wetlands. | 3 |
Wetlands. Terms offered: Fall 2025 An examination of the structure, function and utility of wetlands. Topics include the fluxes of energy and water, wetland biogeochemistry, plant ecology in freshwater and coastal wetlands and wetlands use, conservation and restoration. Field trip(s) are envisaged to illustrate issues covered in class. | ||
| GEOG 505 | Global Biogeochemistry. | 3 |
Global Biogeochemistry. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An examination of the storage, transfers and cycling of major elements and substances, with an emphasis on the global scale and the linkages between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere. | ||
| GEOG 530 | Global Land and Water Resources. | 3 |
Global Land and Water Resources. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Linkage of physical processes (hydrology and ecosystems) with issues of societal and socio-economic relevance (land, food, and water use appropriation for human well-being). Application of a holistic perspective on land, food and water issues in an international setting, highlighting linkages, feedbacks and trade-offs in an Earth system context. | ||
| WILD 302 | Fish Ecology. | 3 |
Fish Ecology. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Introduction to the biology and ecology of freshwater and marine fishes. Topics include taxonomy, physiology, biogeography, competition, predation, fishing, and conservation. Lab exercises and field trips emphasize familiarity with local fishes and their ecological interactions. | ||
| WILD 421 | Wildlife Conservation. | 3 |
Wildlife Conservation. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Study of current controversial issues focusing on wildlife conservation. Topics include: animal rights, exotic species, ecotourism, urban wildlife, multi-use of national parks, harvesting of wildlife, biological controls, and endangered species. | ||