Water and Soil Sciences | Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources
Source: http://www.warnell.uga.edu/research/content/water-and-soil-sciences
Archived: 2026-04-23 17:18
Water and Soil Sciences | Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources
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Water and Soil Sciences
All aspects of land and environmental management involve soils and water. Soils and the vegetation they support interact to control the land-atmosphere exchanges of water and carbon, the routing of nutrients and solutes through the environment, and the hydrologic and water quality characteristics of receiving streams
Our faculty research in this area supports a range of questions associated with soil and hydrologic sciences. Faculty research in this area includes:
Carbon sequestration
Landscape-controlled variation in soil characteristics and watershed behavior
The effects of management activities on water quality
The effectiveness of best management practices
Soils as a medium for plant growth
The use of soils to treat or sequester waste materials
Hydrology
Forest soils
Water quality and environmental systems
Funding for our research comes from many sources including NSF, DOE, USDA, USACE, and the wood products industry.
Graduate Degrees in Water and Soil Resources
Our graduate students address basic and applied questions in soil and hydrologic sciences including carbon sequestration, landscape-controlled variation in soil characteristics and watershed behavior, the effects of management activities on water quality, the effectiveness of best management practices, soils as a medium for plant growth, and the use of soils to treat or sequester waste materials. The graduate curriculum is highly flexible, but most of our students take coursework in spatial and statistical analysis in addition to coursework in soils, hydrology, and ecology.
Students may focus on surface and subsurface fluid flow processes, contaminant fate and transport, forest soil processes, environmental systems analysis, and treatment processes for contaminant removal. Additional opportunities exist for interdisciplinary studies with programs in ecology, geology, crop and soil sciences, biological and agricultural engineering, natural resources policy, environmental health sciences, geography, fisheries, wildlife, and environmental design.
Many of our graduates work in resource management, scientific, or regulatory agencies such as the USFS, ARS, USGS, and EPA. Some go on to academic careers. Others work in consulting firms addressing a number of environmental issues, some in forest industry, and some work for environmental NGOs.
CURRICULUM
Water and Soil Science can be pursued under the MNR, MS, and PhD degree programs. To pursue Water and Soil Science as an official Area of Emphasis (MNR only), the following courses are required:
Course ID
Name
Hours*
Select 3:
WASR 6110/L
Forest Hydrology
4
WASR 8730
Aquifer Mechanics
3
WASR 6500
Quantitative Methods in Hydrology
3
WASR 6000/L
Forest Soil Management
3
GEOL 8710
Watershed-Scale Modeling
3
ENTO 8150
Wetland Ecology
3
ECOL 8850/L
Terrestrial Biogeochemistry
3
CRSS 6600/L
Soil Physics
3
CRSS 6540/L
Pedagogy
3
*Total of 9 hours required for the area of emphasis
QUESTIONS?
For general questions about pursuing a graduate degree at Warnell, contact a member of the graduate team:
Dr.
Jacek Siry
, Graduate Coordinator
Office: 4-501
Phone: 706-542-3060
Kate deDufour
, Graduate Program Administrator
Office: 1-217
Phone: 706-542-1183
Prospective students should also contact faculty members for questions specific to this disciplinary area. Please check faculty members’ personal pages for information about their individual research interests and projects to ensure that you are contacting the most relevant ones.
Related Articles
Game on: Sanford Stadium becomes a field for soil science
Monday, September 1, 2025 - 12:00pm
Sanford Stadium’s usual game plan features football and fans—but this spring, the field played host to a different kind of ‘down and dirty’ competition: soil science.
Abney awarded NSF CAREER grant to study fire’s hidden impacts
Wednesday, August 20, 2025 - 3:30pm
Rebecca Abney, associate professor of forest and disturbed soils at the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, has received a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the Na
Closing the loop: Biochar can create lasting environmental benefits across the landscape
Wednesday, August 16, 2023 - 4:33pm
There’s an adage in hiking: Leave a place better than you found it.
Brookhaven mayor John Ernst is taking that sentiment a step further, launching a plan to clean runoff water as it moves through the town.
The secret ingredient in the plan? Biochar.
An essential relationship: Measuring carbon in soil
Wednesday, August 16, 2023 - 1:30pm
Note: This story is part of a special issue of The Warnell Log focused on carbon
How do you measure carbon in soil? Warnell researchers are doing the math.
Don’t let the “Soil Biogeochemistry Lab” name fool you. It’s all about carbon.
Wetlands help student connect old and new passions
Friday, February 17, 2023 - 3:54pm
To understand Morgan Bettcher’s path to the University of Georgia, you also need to understand wetlands.
Both are a bit complicated—but this is also the beauty of it.
Personnel
Rebecca Abney
Assistant Professor of Forest & Disturbed Soils
Jaivime Evaristo
Assistant Professor, Hydrology and Water Resources
Dr. C. Rhett Jackson
Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, John Porter Stevens Distinguished Professor of Water Resources, IRIS faculty, River Basin Center Faculty
My research interests include the effects of human land use activities, specifically forestry, agriculture, and urbanization, on water quality and aquatic habitat and the effectiveness of best management practices (BMPs) in reducing such nonpoint source pollution. A particular current…
Dr. Daniel Markewitz
Professor, Soil Site Productivity
My scientific interests are directed at quantifying how nutrient and hydrologic cycles control the chemistry of forest soils, drainage waters, and forest productivity. My research focuses on the management of the soil resource in an effort to maximize forest growth and to maintain ecosystem…
Dr. James Shelton
Associate Professor, Fisheries
Threatened aquatic species; water quality management in aquaculture and in fisheries biology.
Dr. Susan Wilde
Associate Professor, Aquatic Science
Ecological impacts of harmful algal blooms in freshwater and marine systems on fish and wildlife. Watershed development, stormwater best management practices, and impacts on water quality. Toxic cyanobacteria, invasive plants, reservoir limnology, and Avian Vacuolar Myelinopathy. Interactions…
Support Warnell
We appreciate your financial support. Your gift is important to us and helps support critical opportunities for students and faculty alike, including lectures, travel support, and any number of educational events that augment the classroom experience.
Learn more about giving
.
Every dollar given has a direct impact upon our students and faculty.
Get in touch
Warnell School of Forestry
and Natural Resources
University of Georgia
180 E Green Street
Athens, GA 30602-2152
Phone:
706-542-2686
Fax:
706-542-8356
Login for Faculty and Staff
Submit a Student Complaint
Skip to main content
Skip to main menu
Skip to spotlight region
Skip to secondary region
Skip to UGA region
Skip to Tertiary region
Skip to Quaternary region
Skip to unit footer
Slideshow
Water and Soil Sciences
All aspects of land and environmental management involve soils and water. Soils and the vegetation they support interact to control the land-atmosphere exchanges of water and carbon, the routing of nutrients and solutes through the environment, and the hydrologic and water quality characteristics of receiving streams
Our faculty research in this area supports a range of questions associated with soil and hydrologic sciences. Faculty research in this area includes:
Carbon sequestration
Landscape-controlled variation in soil characteristics and watershed behavior
The effects of management activities on water quality
The effectiveness of best management practices
Soils as a medium for plant growth
The use of soils to treat or sequester waste materials
Hydrology
Forest soils
Water quality and environmental systems
Funding for our research comes from many sources including NSF, DOE, USDA, USACE, and the wood products industry.
Graduate Degrees in Water and Soil Resources
Our graduate students address basic and applied questions in soil and hydrologic sciences including carbon sequestration, landscape-controlled variation in soil characteristics and watershed behavior, the effects of management activities on water quality, the effectiveness of best management practices, soils as a medium for plant growth, and the use of soils to treat or sequester waste materials. The graduate curriculum is highly flexible, but most of our students take coursework in spatial and statistical analysis in addition to coursework in soils, hydrology, and ecology.
Students may focus on surface and subsurface fluid flow processes, contaminant fate and transport, forest soil processes, environmental systems analysis, and treatment processes for contaminant removal. Additional opportunities exist for interdisciplinary studies with programs in ecology, geology, crop and soil sciences, biological and agricultural engineering, natural resources policy, environmental health sciences, geography, fisheries, wildlife, and environmental design.
Many of our graduates work in resource management, scientific, or regulatory agencies such as the USFS, ARS, USGS, and EPA. Some go on to academic careers. Others work in consulting firms addressing a number of environmental issues, some in forest industry, and some work for environmental NGOs.
CURRICULUM
Water and Soil Science can be pursued under the MNR, MS, and PhD degree programs. To pursue Water and Soil Science as an official Area of Emphasis (MNR only), the following courses are required:
Course ID
Name
Hours*
Select 3:
WASR 6110/L
Forest Hydrology
4
WASR 8730
Aquifer Mechanics
3
WASR 6500
Quantitative Methods in Hydrology
3
WASR 6000/L
Forest Soil Management
3
GEOL 8710
Watershed-Scale Modeling
3
ENTO 8150
Wetland Ecology
3
ECOL 8850/L
Terrestrial Biogeochemistry
3
CRSS 6600/L
Soil Physics
3
CRSS 6540/L
Pedagogy
3
*Total of 9 hours required for the area of emphasis
QUESTIONS?
For general questions about pursuing a graduate degree at Warnell, contact a member of the graduate team:
Dr.
Jacek Siry
, Graduate Coordinator
Office: 4-501
Phone: 706-542-3060
Kate deDufour
, Graduate Program Administrator
Office: 1-217
Phone: 706-542-1183
Prospective students should also contact faculty members for questions specific to this disciplinary area. Please check faculty members’ personal pages for information about their individual research interests and projects to ensure that you are contacting the most relevant ones.
Related Articles
Game on: Sanford Stadium becomes a field for soil science
Monday, September 1, 2025 - 12:00pm
Sanford Stadium’s usual game plan features football and fans—but this spring, the field played host to a different kind of ‘down and dirty’ competition: soil science.
Abney awarded NSF CAREER grant to study fire’s hidden impacts
Wednesday, August 20, 2025 - 3:30pm
Rebecca Abney, associate professor of forest and disturbed soils at the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, has received a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the Na
Closing the loop: Biochar can create lasting environmental benefits across the landscape
Wednesday, August 16, 2023 - 4:33pm
There’s an adage in hiking: Leave a place better than you found it.
Brookhaven mayor John Ernst is taking that sentiment a step further, launching a plan to clean runoff water as it moves through the town.
The secret ingredient in the plan? Biochar.
An essential relationship: Measuring carbon in soil
Wednesday, August 16, 2023 - 1:30pm
Note: This story is part of a special issue of The Warnell Log focused on carbon
How do you measure carbon in soil? Warnell researchers are doing the math.
Don’t let the “Soil Biogeochemistry Lab” name fool you. It’s all about carbon.
Wetlands help student connect old and new passions
Friday, February 17, 2023 - 3:54pm
To understand Morgan Bettcher’s path to the University of Georgia, you also need to understand wetlands.
Both are a bit complicated—but this is also the beauty of it.
Personnel
Rebecca Abney
Assistant Professor of Forest & Disturbed Soils
Jaivime Evaristo
Assistant Professor, Hydrology and Water Resources
Dr. C. Rhett Jackson
Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, John Porter Stevens Distinguished Professor of Water Resources, IRIS faculty, River Basin Center Faculty
My research interests include the effects of human land use activities, specifically forestry, agriculture, and urbanization, on water quality and aquatic habitat and the effectiveness of best management practices (BMPs) in reducing such nonpoint source pollution. A particular current…
Dr. Daniel Markewitz
Professor, Soil Site Productivity
My scientific interests are directed at quantifying how nutrient and hydrologic cycles control the chemistry of forest soils, drainage waters, and forest productivity. My research focuses on the management of the soil resource in an effort to maximize forest growth and to maintain ecosystem…
Dr. James Shelton
Associate Professor, Fisheries
Threatened aquatic species; water quality management in aquaculture and in fisheries biology.
Dr. Susan Wilde
Associate Professor, Aquatic Science
Ecological impacts of harmful algal blooms in freshwater and marine systems on fish and wildlife. Watershed development, stormwater best management practices, and impacts on water quality. Toxic cyanobacteria, invasive plants, reservoir limnology, and Avian Vacuolar Myelinopathy. Interactions…
Support Warnell
We appreciate your financial support. Your gift is important to us and helps support critical opportunities for students and faculty alike, including lectures, travel support, and any number of educational events that augment the classroom experience.
Learn more about giving
.
Every dollar given has a direct impact upon our students and faculty.
Get in touch
Warnell School of Forestry
and Natural Resources
University of Georgia
180 E Green Street
Athens, GA 30602-2152
Phone:
706-542-2686
Fax:
706-542-8356
Login for Faculty and Staff
Submit a Student Complaint