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Biogeochemistry is the study of biological controls on the chemistry of the environment and geochemical regulation of ecological structure and function. Although the term was first used some 60 years ago, roots of this discipline can be traced to the earliest development of natural sciences, before biology, geology, and chemistry became separate disciplines. Today, biogeochemistry serves as a force of reintegration across these fields.
Cornell has a strong tradition in the fields of biogeochemistry and environmental science. A course in biogeochemistry was offered at Cornell as early as 1966 by Jack Vallentyne. The discipline spans numerous departments and units at the university. In the early 1990's, the Division of Biological Sciences began funding a seminar series to bring biogeochemists together from across the campus. This effort was expanded later with additional funding from the Center for the Environment. From 1996-2002, biogeochemistry at Cornell was funded by a National Science Foundation Research Training Grant. The NSF IGERT program will fund the program for Biogeochemistry and Environmental Biocomplexity for the next five years.

The study of biogeochemistry has grown tremendously over the past few decades, in part because of concerns over human-accelerated environmental change. The environment is always changing, but human activity has greatly increased the rate of this change since the Industrial Revolution and particularly in the past 30 years.

Biogeochemistry has proven central to understanding changes such as:
  • increased eutrophication of surface waters
  • acidification of streams and lakes from atmospheric deposition
  • forest die-back from excess addition of nutrients and acids
  • loss of biotic diversity from accelerated element cycling
  • global changes in the cycling of atmospheric greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrogen compounds
Today, the Program in Biogeochemistry & Environmental Biocomplexity integrates the activities of faculty, staff and students in many departments and graduate fields:
  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
  • Natural Resources
  • Microbiology
  • Geological Sciences
  • Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
  • Crop and Soil Sciences
  • Agricultural and Biological Engineering
  • Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Horticulture
  • Nutritional Science
Four colleges:
  • College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
  • Arts and Sciences
  • Engineering
  • Human Ecology
Plus the Boyce Thompson Institute and the Institute of Ecosystem Studies.

The program hasled to important new collaborations in research, in undergraduate teaching and graduate education, and in outreach.

Students may enter the program through any of the departments and fields listed above. There is a weekly seminar series which brings in outside experts in various areas of biogeochemistry. Shared research facilities created by the program are available for student research.

Perhaps one of the strongest components of this program is its faculty -- especially their national and international leadership roles and the high calibre of their research. Faculty lead or participate in international programs and activities such as the "international nitrogen project" of the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), and America's Interhemisphere Geo-Biosphere Organization. Faculty serve as advisors at a national level in meetings and reviews held by the National Science and Technology Council, the National Research Council, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Program of the NSF, and other agencies. Faculty hold journal editorships and serve as peer reviewers for numerous journals, funding agencies, and scientific programs.		  
www.igert.org home : research : education : directory : participate

For more information, please contact biogeo@cornell.edu.		 www.nsf.gov

Photo credits: Sunset at Laupahoehoe by Meghan Herz / frog by Brian Roberts / diving ecologist by Gretchen Gettel