College of Resources & Environmental Sciences (CRES) was established on April of 1992 by merging Department of Soil & Plant Nutrition, Department of Land Resources, Department of Agro-meteorology, and Remote Sensing Institute into one.

Currently, CRES has two research centers, which are Research Center of Resource Sciences and Research Center of Ecological Sciences. The Research Center of Resource Sciences owns Department of Soil & Water Science, Department of Land Resource & Management, and Department of Agro-meteorology. The Research Center of Ecological Sciences contains another three departments: Department of Plant Nutrition, Department of Environmental Science & Engineering, and Department of Ecological Science & Engineering.

CRES has 136 faculty members, including one academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, three Changjiang Scholars, three Distinguished Young Scientists of National Fund, and twelve New Century Talents.

CRES has already set up a complementary system for undergraduate, master degree, doctorate degree, and post-doctor cultivations. CRES has two State Key Disciplines, two Provincial or Ministerial Key Disciplines, one MOE Key Laboratory, two MOA Key Laboratories, and four Research Centers. CRES has already built six field stations among China, such as Quzhou MOA Key Field Station for Agricultural Resources and Ecological Environment and Huhhot MOA Key Field Station for Environment of Agri-pasture Ecozone.

CRES hosted a series of research projects, including The National Basic R&D Program of China, The National High Technology R&D Program of China, The National Natural Science Fund, and some other ministerial programs. CRES is an active participant in international collaborative programs together with Germany, Australia, Netherland, and European Union. The total grants from 2003 to 2006 were 11.88 million US dollars. CRES made great progress in specific areas and received some National and Ministerial awards. From 2003 to 2007, CRES had 1,232 papers published and 313 of them had been indexed by SCI and EI. In August 2005, Prof. Lu Yahai’s paper “In Situ Stable Isotope Probing of Methanogenic Archaea in the Rice Rhizosphere” was published on Science.

CRES is also making great effort in international academic communication and keeping in close touch with universities and institutes in US, UK, Germany, France, Australia, Netherland, and Japan. CRES has become one of the sponsors of several international conferences.