地理科学哲学博士-碳，植被动力学和景观尺度过程

该部门开展了广泛的研究，重点是监测植被动态，特别是对人为和自然干扰及其景观规模影响以及气候变化导致的地表变化进行制图和研究。这项研究涉及将基于现场的研究与遥感观测相结合，以解决关键的科学不确定性。全球碳循环的变化正在改变大气成分和气候，对人类福祉产生影响，我们研究的重点是以前所未有的复杂度和分辨率对陆地碳循环进行监测和建模。地理科学系提供的研究生课程包括哲学博士，地理空间信息科学专业研究硕士学位，以及五年制的联合理学学士学位和地理科学理学硕士学位。
The Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland College Park, ranked 3rd out of 49 Geography Departments in the 2010 NRC Rankings. This is an outstanding achievement and confirms that Maryland Geography is one of the leading departments in the nation. The assessment also showed that Maryland Geography ranked first in the number of citations, indicating the broad level of recognition for our research publications. While members of the Department are involved in many of the mainstream concerns of the discipline, they are also responding to the new challenges and opportunities of earth system science, human dimensions of global change, global warming, population expansion and third-world development, to name but a few issues. The department carries out a broad array of research focused on monitoring vegetation dynamics, with a particular focus on mapping and studying human and natural disturbances and their landscape-scale impacts, as well as changes to the earth surface as a result of climate variability. This research involves integration of field-based research with remotely-sensed observations to address key scientific uncertainties. Alterations to the global carbon cycle are changing atmospheric composition and climate with implications for human well-being and a particular focus of our research is on monitoring and modeling the terrestrial carbon cycle with unprecedented sophistication and resolution.