Department of Natural Resource Sciences

The Department of Natural Resource Sciences (Agricultural Economics, Entomology, Microbiology, and Renewable Resources: Forest Science, Micrometeorology, Neotropical Environment, Soil Science, Wildlife Biology) is an interdisciplinary group that is concerned with natural and managed ecosystems, at both the macro and micro levels, with the aim of conservation and optimal resource management. This includes promoting sustainability and biodiversity. Research is conducted at both applied and basic levels.

Although most of our teaching and research is carried out within the Québec and Canadian contexts, the department is also very active in international activities with projects in Egypt, Tanzania, the Philippines, People's Republic of China, Zimbabwe, India, and Nigeria. Many of our graduate students are from overseas and impart a multinational flavour to the department that expands the horizons of staff and students alike.

A fundamental property of the environment in which we live is the interaction that takes place between its many components: interactions between the earth's atmosphere and forests or crops, between plants and other organisms in the soil, between soil properties and nutrients available to plants, between vegetation and the wildlife it supports, between ecological communities on the land and those of the rivers and lakes nearby, between microbial organisms and food safety and disease, between insects, plants and animals, between human activities such as agriculture, forestry and industrial development and natural ecological processes.

The courses and academic programs offered by the Department of Natural Resource Sciences allow students to explore interactions among the components of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems through the development of a strong, interdisciplinary background in basic and applied science.