Environmental Science

Updated October 2009

Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory

The Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL) was founded as a research and teaching unit at Colorado State University around 1968 in response to the International Biological Program initiative and the need for more integrated and interdisciplinary understanding of how ecosystems function. Originally focused on understanding the grassland biome of eastern Colorado and around the world, the ecosystems research of the NREL has since expanded to include research on all 7 continents, across scales of investigation that span molecular to global, incorporating field, laboratory and model-based studies. The common theme of NREL research is to understand the physical, chemical and biological linkages and interactions of humans with ecosystems, linkages that underpin ecosystem function and the provision of ecosystem goods and services. NREL research aims to provide solutions that enhance human stewardship of the earth’s natural resources and thus long-term economic and ecological sustainability.

The research scientist community at NREL represents one of the most distinguished collections of ecosystem scientists in the world. Among its members are former presidents of the Ecological Society of America and the American Institute of Biological Sciences, program officers at the National Science Foundation, chairs and panel members of numerous National Academy of Sciences committees, Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellows, fellows of scientific societies, and panelists for funding agencies. NREL scientific members serve as principal investigators on collaborative research involving other scientists from CSU, other universities, and federal, state, and non-governmental agencies and scientific staff. NREL Research Scientists contribute to multidisciplinary intellectual interactions; lead or participate nationally and internationally on complex, integrated research collaborations; publish multi-authored papers resulting from NREL's atmosphere of trust and collegiality; mentor and provide hands-on training for young scientists, graduate students, and undergraduates from Colorado, the nation, and countries around the globe. The NREL has approximately 68 Research Scientists, including 34 NREL Research Faculty and 34 Affiliate Scientists The driving goal of NREL science is to increase the fundamental understanding of our environment, through collaborative application of ecology and ecosystem science principles which contribute to policy and management decisions promoting sustainability. NREL has a 30-year tradition of bringing scientists from different disciplines together to investigate complicated ecological problems.

Pollutants and their Health Impacts

The College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences has numerous experts who track environmental pollutants and look for patterns of specific diseases within communities (such as specific cancers caused from water found to be contaminated or visits to emergency rooms for heart and respiratory problems related to hourly air pollution fluctuations). Other researchers are investigating the impact of pollutants and common household chemicals on specific kinds of cancers and other health conditions, including reproductive system conditions that may pass from generation to generation.

Shortgrass Steppe Long-Term Ecological Research project

Faculty in the Soil and Crop Sciences Department lead the Shortgrass Steppe Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) project, located at the Central Plains Experimental Range and the Pawnee Grasslands about 60 miles northeast of Fort Collins. This is one of 26 sites, each representing a diverse ecosystem and research emphasis, in the National Science Foundation's network of LTER sites across the country — a collaborative network involving more than 1,800 scientists and students investigating ecological processes over long temporal and broad spatial scales. The network promotes synthesis and comparative research across sites and ecosystems and among other related national and international research programs. The Shortgrass Steppe LTER project represents the continuing development of a research tradition that began in the late 1960's, the time at which ecosystem science was formally recognized as a sub-discipline in ecology. Research at the site over the past 20 years has had an important interactive relationship with the development of ecosystem science. The project maintains close working ties with the USDA Agricultural Research Services Great Plains Rangeland Resources Research Unit, the USFS Pawnee National Grassland Ranger District, and the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station, that allow for easy transfer of ideas, data, technology and expertise.

UVB Monitoring and Research Program

Since 1992, Colorado State's UVB Monitoring and Research Program has created research stations in 26 states to measure ultraviolet radiation and to determine its effects on agriculture and human health. The U.S. Department of Agriculture funds the $1.85 million program in Colorado State's Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, based in the Warner College of Natural Resources. Solar measurements from the UV to the near infrared are made every three minutes at 36 climate stations established by Colorado State. This critical information — unavailable from any other source — is used by researchers at USDA, NASA, NOAA and EPA. These measurements can be applied on a global scale and allow scientists to make global predictions on how various mitigation strategies would work at reducing pollution and greenhouse warming effects of aerosols around the world.

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