Department of Earth Sciences

Global Climate and Environmental Change

Are You the Next Generation of Science?

This is our new graduate program where students will be broadly trained in Geological perspectives. Climatology in the Department of Earth Sciences investigates and models climate patterns such as the El Niño/Southern Oscillation, rainfall, snowlines, and wind patterns in southern California. The decisions about climate change society makes in the next decade will determine the habitability of our planet.

Putting the Science in the Global Climate Debate

Those decisions can only be as good as the scientific understanding of climate change that they are based on. Society needs scientists to undertake this work. The Global Climate and Environmental Change Graduate Program at UCR offers a fascinating and unique immersion in the actual record of climate change leading to a Masters degree and the scientific skill and understanding necessary to begin a career .

Global climate change is one of the most pressing scientific issues of our time, and has created an acute need for well trained scientists versed in the complexity of the Earth's climate system. The Global Climate and Environmental Change program at University of California, Riverside, offers a two-year, field-based, graduate program that is radical in its conception and new in its kind. GCEC immerses students in the first principles of studying and interpreting the actual record of climate change using the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California as its laboratory. From the modern glaciers to ancient bristle cone pine trees, the oldest living organisms on Earth, the high Sierra contains one of the best records of continental climate in North America.

This program provides a unique experience for students through:

Multidisciplinary Approach: environmental problems require multiple perspectives, disciplines, and professions, and UCR professors offer an unusually broad range of expertise.

First Principal Perspective: to understand the holistic view of these problems, fundamntal principals of science must be mastered.

Field Based Applications: an intensive field based component of this degree serves to emphasize the capabilities and limitations of climate research, while providing valuable skills in organizing and executing field research.

Realistic Experience: focused projects and papers that prepare students for a wide range of real world applications preparing them for careers in academia, industry, consulting, and policy-making.

Program Structure

This program is designed as a 2 year Master of Science Degree with the following components.

Field Component- A team of faculty teach GCEC students how to collect, analyze, and interpret, climate records from glaciers, lakes, trees and sediments in the Sierra Nevada Mountains based out of the University of California White Mountain Research Station. This affords students an extended period of time in the high Sierras to gain the strategies and skills necessary for obtaining paleoclimate data. This is the core class for the program.

Class Oriented Training -A range of seminars and classes in the first year provide the theoretical knowledge and practical skills necessary to study the complexity of the climate system.

Individual Research Project written up as a Thesis- . In the second year, GCEC students under the mentorship of a chosen faculty member embark on their own research project, drawing on the skills gained in the first year to conduct field studies, analyze samples in the laboratory, and write these results up as thesis toward and award of Masters of Science.

Faculty

The diverse and collaborative faculty in the Earth Sciences Department provide a unique opportunity for a broad background in Global Climate and Environmental Change.

Martin Kennedy, Program Director-paleoclimate events recorded in the stratigraphic record; ancient carbon cycle and biogeochemical feedbacks within the biosphere; oceanographic events surrounding Neoproterozoic glaciation; modern and quaternary sedimentary systems of California.

Rich Minnich- lateral snow transport and quaternary glaciation in California; tertiary climate and vegetation change in California, Perennial snow and subalpine tree lines; Extreme drought and forest dieback in southern California and northern Baja California Mexico.

Gordon Love- understanding the global carbon cycle and the long-term fate of organic molecules, and the use of molecular organic geochemistry in monitoring of a variety of organic pollutants and microbial processes.

Mary Droser- the biotic response to environmental perturbation; diversification of animals following the Neoproterozoic glaciations; ecology of mass extinctions and diversifications animal-sediment relationships in terrestrial and marine environments.

Alan Williams- stable isotope geochemistry as an indicator of global climate changes; weather dynamics as a consequence and/or a driver of climate change, and planetology including atmospheric energy balance.

Tom Scott- Wildlife conservation in fragmented and altered landscapes, including studies of wildlife movement, habitat use, and population biology in diverse habitats; behavioral changes and adjustments in habitat use of woodland bird species; the conservation and management of bird species through captive propagation, predator control, and habitat restoration.

Katherine Kendrick- landscape response to climatic and tectonic perturbations; pedogenesis to constrain rates of surficial processes and determine landscape sensitivity in Quaternary systems.

Lab Facilities

Within the Earth Sciences department we have 5 mass spectrometers including a VG Prism Dual Inlet Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer, two new Thermo Finnigan Delta Plus Continuous Flow Stable isotope ratio mass spectrometers attached to a gas chromatograph (IRGCMS), auto carbonate, auto water preparation devices and to an elemental analyzer, an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICPMS) and finally a gas chromatography mass spectrometer (GCMS). Together these instruments are capable of analyzing the full range of isotopic variation of biologically important elements such as C, O, H, N, S along with fossil molecules or biomarkers and organic compounds and ultra sensitive trace element determination for tracing elements in the natural environment. These instruments are the latest models and housed in newly constructed, state of the art laboratories designed specifically for environmental research.

Additional analytical capability includes the quantitative determination of sediment and soil mineralogy using Xray Diffraction (XRD) and the Central Facility for Advanced Microscopy and Microanalysis (CFAMM) incorporates two transmission, two scanning electron microscopes, and a confocal laser microscope system. Three basic kinds of information in the micron down to atomic scale range are provided by the electron microscopes; images, crystal structure, and chemical analyses. The laser confocal microscopy offers the opportunity for imaging of fluorescent samples and 3D optical reconstructions.  We also have multiple rock, sediment and soil preparation facilities and are complemented by the extensive analytical capability in the Environmental Science Department.

Renovations in the Earth Sciences building provide brand new, state of the art laboratory facilities.