A collaboration between the Faculty of Land and Food Systems and Faculty of Forestry, the inter-faculty Soil Science Graduate Program offers opportunities for advanced study and research leading to MSc and PhD degrees. Students are registered in the Faculty of Graduate Studies through either the Faculty of Land and Food Systems or Faculty of Forestry, depending upon their research interests.

Areas of study include biometeorology, forest nutrition and nutrient cycling, land use and land evaluation, mycorrhizal ecology, soil biology, soil chemistry and mineralogy, soil fertility, soil physics and hydrology, soil-plant interactions, soil and water conservation.

• Faculty Members and their Research 
• Collaborations and Cross-Campus Links 
• Recent Research Thesis Topics 
• Career Paths of Graduates

Faculty Members and Their Research Area

Black, Andy: Professor. Climatic variability, carbon and water balances of forests and agricultural crops

Chanway, Chris: Professor. Soil, microorganisms, bacteria, fungi, ecology, nitrogen fixation, plant growth promotion

Chieng, Sie-Tan: Professor. Irrigation and drainage, soil and water management, environmental impact assessment.

Sue Grayston: Professor. (Faculty of Forestry, UBC.) Microbial diversity and function in soils, plant-microbe interactions, rhizodeposition

Krzic, Maja: Associate Professor. Soil quality, application of information technology in soil science education, soil compaction.

Les Lavkulich: Professor Emeritus, Gradaute Advisor: Mineralogy, surface reactions, soil genesis, mineral-organic interactions, natural science and policy development

Novak, Michael: Associate Professor. Heat and moisture transfer in soil and atmosphere, soil hydraulic properties, wind tunnel and field measurements

Cindy Prescott: Professor. (Faculty of Forestry, UBC) Forest nutrition, N availability, forest fertilization.

Schreier, Hans: Professor Emeritus, Watershed management, land-water Interactions, soil and water pollution

Smukler, Sean: Agricultural landscape ecology, biodiversity, ecosystem services, sustainable development 

Suzanne Simard: Professor. (Faculty of Forestry, UBC) Plant community ecology, plant - soil microbial interactions, mycorrhizae, forest regeneration.
 

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Collaborations and Cross-Campus Links

• Shannon Berch (Adjunct Professor), BC Ministry of Forest & Range, Victoria. Soil mycorrhizae, Shannon.Berch@gov.bc.ca
• Klaas Broersma (Adjunct Professor), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Kamloops. Soil and water quality. broersma@shaw.ca
• Sandra Brown (Research Associate). Natural and human impacted processes that affect land and water resources available for communities and ecosystems sjbrown@interchange.ubc.ca
• Chuck Bulmer (Adjunct Professor), BC Ministry of Forest & Range, Vernon. Soil rehabilitation. Chuck.Bulmer@gov.bc.ca
• Mike Curran (Adjunct Professor), BC Ministry of Forest & Range, Nelson. Soil conservation, Mike.Curran@gov.bc.ca
• Tom Forge (Adjunct Professor), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Agassiz. Soil ecology. forgeta@agr.gc.ca
• Rachhpal Jassal (Research Associate). Carbon sequestration, greenhouse gas emissions, soil-nutrient-water interactions rachhpal.jassal@ubc.ca
• Loretta Li (Associate Professor), Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, UBC. Soil-contaminant interaction. lli@civil.ubc.ca
• William Mohn (Professor), Department of Microbiology and Immunology, UBC. Soil bioremediation, wmohn@interchange.ubc.ca
• Dan Moore (Professor), Faculty of Science (Geography). Hydrology, hydroclimatology, riparian processes and management, physical water quality. rdmoore@geog.ubc.ca
• David Spittlehouse (Adjunct Professor), BC Ministry of Forests & Range, Victoria. Climate change, forest meteorology. dave.spittlehouse@gov.bc.ca
• Wayne Temple (Research Associate). Soil fertility. wayne.temple@ubc.ca
• Yihai (Simon) Zhao (Research Associate). Forest soils, soil compaction, rangeland ecology. zhyihai@interchange.ubc.ca

The program is enriched through collaboration with colleagues in other graduate programs such as Forestry, Geography, Plant Science, Institute for Resources and Environment, Landscape Architecture, and in agencies such as Environment Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Forest Innovation Investment, and various provincial government agencies.
 

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Recent Research Thesis Topics 

• The role of common mycorrhizal networks in plant community dynamics
• Biosolids application on rangeland soils
• Catchment hydrology and the stream environment 
• Integrated measurement and modeling of carbon, water and energy fluxes from forest ecosystems: effects of climatic variability on the carbon budget of a boreal old aspen forest
• The People and Resource Dynamics Project in Nepal and China
• Management for integrating grassland set-asides into crop rotations
• Soil microcosms for validating field survival of genetically engineering microorganisms
• Solute transport in cultivated soils
• Drainage water quality under turf cultivation
• The process of acid rock generation (weathering)
• Himalayan-Andean Watershed Project: A comparison of watersheds showing the similarities and differences in the status and dynamics of the soil, water, forest and agricultural resources
• Food security and ecological sustainability
• Forest Grazing in BC
• Rehabilitation of degraded soils on landings and wells
   

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Career Paths of Graduates

Graduates from soil science graduate program often obtain positions with government or industry. Some graduates decide to continue in the area of research and academia with various universities and colleges.

Examples of where some of the graduate are currently based: · 

• Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
• BC Ministry of Forests
• Canadian Forest Service
• Consultant
• Associate Professor, University of Guelph
• Associate Professor, Yale University
• Associate Professor, University of Northern BC
• Environment Canada
• Assistant Professor, University of Bengukulu, Indonesia
• Assistant Professor, University of Venda for Science and Technology, South Africa
   

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