Students will learn to integrate scientific, technical, and socioeconomic elements to provide sustainable aquatic resources from local to international levels. Texas State's location, near many terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, including San Marcos Springs, the headwaters of the San Marcos River, as well as The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, Aquarena Center and the Freeman Center, provides students with a unique opportunity for study and research. Texas State’s local resources give students the ability to study habitats for threatened or endangered species and to develop and promote programs for the sustainable use of aquatic resources and ecosystems.<br>The doctoral program emphasizes original research (including basic and applied) to provide depth and breadth of knowledge in aquatic resources and integrative biology and related disciplines, from the watershed and ecosystem scale down to the population, organismal and microbial scale. Students are engaged in a collaborative research environment among students, faculty, natural resource agencies, nonprofit organizations and public and private interests. The curriculum stresses active roles for students in intellectual exchange with faculty and peers and in the critique of published research. The program prepares students to identify and solve complex problems relevant to the sustainable use of terrestrial and aquatic resources and ecosystems.