Earth System Science
Department of Geosciences
Curriculum and Course Work
Program Completion Requirements
The interdisciplinary PhD degree, without previous graduate course work, requires successful completion of a minimum of 60 semester credit hours at the graduate level (6000‐8000 level).
The total 60 hours must include:
1) 7 hours of required core courses across earth system science disciplines,
2) A minimum of 10 hours of dissertation credit,
3) Additional elective course work to develop an academic focus with the approval of the faculty adviser and dissertation committee.
PROGRAM COMPLETION REQUIREMENTS
|
Credit hours required in core courses |
7 |
|
Credit hours in free electives |
38-43 |
|
Credit hours for dissertation |
10-15 |
|
Total credit hours required for completion |
60 |
The maximum number of directed‐study credits that may be applied toward the degree is six (6) units. The total number of credit hours of previous graduate courses or thesis work may be transferred toward the PhD degree must be less than 50 percent of the credit hours listed on the Plan of Study. A maximum of four hours of Master thesis credit may be transferred and counted toward PhD course requirement.
Program’s Required and Elective Courses
Program’s required and recommended elective courses are listed below. Required core courses are listed under the subject code ESSI. In addition to core courses, many participating departments offer elective courses that are extremely useful for students to develop an academic focus. These courses are listed on Auburn Courses of Instruction website (http://bulletin.auburn.edu/coursesofinstruction/). The affiliated and supporting academic units include Geosciences (GEOL and GEOG), Mathematics & Statistics (STAT), Biological Sciences (BIOL), Departments in the College of Liberal Arts (ANTH, ECON, RSOC), Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences (CSES), Biosystems Engineering (BSEN), Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences (FISH), Civil Engineering (CIVL), Computer Science and Software Engineering (COMP), School Forestry and wildlife Sciences (FORY, FOWS, WILD, GSEI), and College of Education (ERMA and CTSE).
|
Required Core Courses |
Credit Hours |
|
ESSI 8000 Earth System Science and Global Change |
3 |
|
ESSI 8100 Earth System Observation and Analysis |
3 |
|
ESSI 8200 Earth System Science Seminar |
1 |
|
ESSI 8990 PhD Dissertation (Minimum) |
10 |
|
Recommended Elective Courses |
Credit Hours |
|
ANTH 6970 Political Ecology |
3 |
|
BIOL 6090 Conservation Biology |
3 |
|
BIOL 6150 Community Ecology |
3 |
|
BIOL 6510 Biogeography |
3 |
|
BIOL 7075 Introduction to Oceanography |
3 |
|
BIOL 7370 Stream Ecology |
4 |
|
BIOL 7380 Ecology & Management of Riverine Systems |
4 |
|
BIOL 7705 Tropical Biology: Ecological Approach |
8 |
|
BIOL/STAT 7970 Quantitative Methods for Biological Data |
4 |
|
BSEN 6220 Geospatial Technologies in Biosystems |
3 |
|
BSEN 6250 Deterministic Modeling |
3 |
|
BSEN 6260 Renewable Energy in Biosystems Process Operations |
3 |
|
BSEN 6510 Ecological Engineering |
3 |
|
BSEN 6520 Watershed Modeling |
3 |
|
BSEN 6540 Biomass and Biofuels |
3 |
|
CIVL 6110 Open Channel Hydraulics |
3 |
|
CIVL 6120 Hydrologic Analysis & Modeling |
3 |
|
CIVL 6150 Groundwater Hydraulics |
3 |
|
CIVL 6210 Chemical Principle of Enviro Engineering |
3 |
|
CIVL 6240 Air Pollution |
3 |
|
CIVL 6250 Biological Principal of Environmental Engineering |
3 |
|
CIVL 6970 Urban Hydraulic System Design |
3 |
|
CIVL 7140 Ecohydrology |
3 |
|
CIVL 7170 Numeric Methods for Hydraulics and Hydrology |
3 |
|
CIVL 7210 Methods of Pollution Analysis |
3 |
|
CIVL 7220 Wastewater Ops Proc I |
3 |
|
CIVL 7230 Wastewater Ops Proc II |
3 |
|
CIVL 7280/7286 Surface Water Quality Modeling |
3 |
|
CIVL 7970 Environmental Fluid Dynamics |
3 |
|
CIVL 7970 Numerical Modeling of Free Surface Flows |
3 |
|
CIVL/ESSI 7970 Social ‐ Ecological Systems |
3 |
|
COMP 6120 Database Systems I |
3 |
|
COMP 7120 Database Systems II |
3 |
|
CSES 6000 Soils and Environmental Quality |
3 |
|
CSES 6020 Nutrient Management |
3 |
|
CSES 6060 Soil Microbiology |
3 |
|
CSES 6061 Soil Microbiology Lab |
1 |
|
CSES 6080 Soil Resources and Conservation |
4 |
|
CSES 6150 Soil Morphology |
4 |
|
CSES 6300 Soil Chemistry |
4 |
|
CSES 6590 Environmental Soil Physics |
4 |
|
CSES 7080 Experimental Methods |
3 |
|
CSES/ENVI 7600 Agroclimatology |
3 |
|
CTSE 7510 Research Studies: Science |
3 |
|
CTSE 7540 Evaluation of Program: Science |
3 |
|
ECON 8540 Seminar in Environmental Economics |
3 |
|
ERMA 7200 Basic Methods in Science Education |
3 |
|
ERMA 7210 Theory and Methodology of Qualitative Research |
3 |
|
ERMA 7300/7306 Design and Analysis in Education I |
3 |
|
ERMA 7310 Design and Analysis in Education II |
3 |
|
ERMA 8200/8206 Survey Research Methods |
3 |
|
FISH 5725/6725 Marine Ichthyology |
6 |
|
FISH 6320/6321 Limnology/Limnology Lab |
4 |
|
FISH 7340 Fish Ecology |
3 |
|
FISH 7530 Fish Population Dynamics |
3 |
|
FISH 7540 Quantitative Techniques in Fishery Assessment |
3 |
|
FISH 7650 Traditional Approaches to Fish Genetic Enhancement |
2 |
|
FISH 7750 Biotechnological Approaches to Fish Genetics |
2 |
|
FORY 6250 Wetland Ecology and Management |
3 |
|
FORY 6470 GIS Applications in Natural Resources |
2 |
|
FORY 6480 GIS Database Design and Analysis |
2 |
|
FORY 7110 Forest Biogeochemistry |
3 |
|
FORY 7160 Ecosystem Responses to Chemical Climate Change |
3 |
|
FORY 7210 Ecosystem Ecology |
3 |
|
FORY 7250 Advanced Ecosystem Modeling |
3 |
|
FORY 7550 Watershed Hydrology |
3 |
|
FORY 7560 Modeling Environmental Change at Multiple Scales |
3 |
|
FOWS 6050 Urban Ecology |
3 |
|
FOWS 6220 Landscape Ecology |
3 |
|
FOWS 6320 Environmental Services |
3 |
|
FOWS 6880 Ecological Economics |
3 |
|
FOWS 7150 Spatial Statistics for Natural Resources |
3 |
|
GEOG 6010 Urban Geography and Sustainability |
3 |
|
GEOG 6210 Climatology |
3 |
|
GEOG 6220 Geomorphology |
3 |
|
GEOG 6600 Global Resources and the Environment |
3 |
|
GEOG 6700 Quantitative Methods and Spatial Analysis |
3 |
|
GEOG 6850 Geographic Information System Applications |
3 |
|
GEOG 6870 Advanced Remote Sensing |
3 |
|
GEOG 6880 Advanced GIS |
3 |
|
GEOL 6100 Hydrogeology |
3 |
|
GEOL 6300 Basin Analysis |
3 |
|
GEOL 6440 Electron Microprobe Analysis |
3 |
|
GEOL 6500 Petroleum Geology |
3 |
|
GEOL 6600 Applied Geophysics |
3 |
|
GEOL 7170 Impact and Planetary Geology |
3 |
|
GEOL 7200 Tectonics |
3 |
|
GEOL 7250 Groundwater Hydrogeologic Modeling |
3 |
|
GEOL 7260 Aqueous and Environmental Geochemistry |
3 |
|
GEOL 7280 Climate Change Literacy and Communication |
3 |
|
GEOL 7300 Cycles through Earth History |
3 |
|
GEOL 7400 Advanced Economic Geology |
3 |
|
GEOL 7450 Mineral Resources and Environment |
3 |
|
GEOL 7500 Paleoclimatology |
3 |
|
GEOL 7550 Advanced Geophysics |
3 |
|
GEOL 7600 Petrology |
3 |
|
GEOL 7610 Structure and Metamorphic Analysis |
3 |
|
GEOL 7650 Facies Analysis and Sequence Stratigraphy |
3 |
|
GEOL 7700 Analytical and Isotope Geochemistry |
3 |
|
GEOL/ESSI 8900 Directed Studies |
3 |
|
GSEI/ESSI 6200 Land Processes and Climate Interactions |
3 |
|
GSEI/ESSI 6600 Climate Modeling |
3 |
|
GSEI/ESSI 7500 Digital Earth and Big Data |
3 |
|
RSOC 7630 Political Economy of Development |
3 |
|
STAT 7000 Experimental Statistics I |
4 |
|
STAT 7020 Regression Analysis |
3 |
|
STAT 7670 Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis |
3 |
|
STAT 7840 Applied Multivariate Statistical Analysis |
3 |
|
STAT 7860 Applied Time Series Analysis |
3 |
|
WILD 7100 Applied Ecological Modeling |
2 |
|
WILD 7150 Advanced Analysis for Ecological Sciences |
4 |
Program Completion Timeline
The content and timeline of the dissertation research is to be determined by the student with inputs from his or her primary research adviser and committee. Students should work closely with their main faculty adviser to implement a plan of study in a reasonable timeframe that suits their individual circumstances.