Grand Forks, North Dakota 1.
Weather is one of the driving factors in the dynamics of plant, soil and environmental interaction.
For example, precipitation, wind, sky cover and other aspects of meteorology influence such soil and plant processes as ground water contamination, plant growth, plant nutriment, pest control, and soil erosion. The effects of weather on the various aspects of soil and plant science are inseparable. Such subject matter can be studied without a thorough knowledge of the weather, however, a more valuable education is going to be had by those that include atmospheric science in their course of study. At MSU there is no atmospheric science program, therefore, there are no professors on the campus available to support the PSES department broaden their educational program through inclusion of the study of atmospheric science. It was also not financially feasible for the department to add faculty for the instruction of one or two courses a year.