Seal element of the university of freiburg in the shape of a trefoil

Major Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Schmetterlinge und Bienen auf blühenden Blumen

Key challenges in biology are to understand (i) the evolution of organisms, (ii) the interactions among organisms and their environment as well as (iii) the factors contributing to the evolution and maintenance of biodiversity. The area “Ecology and Evolutionary Biology” focuses on these central questions on different taxa (from plants to animals), in a broad array of ecosystems (from aquatic to terrestrial), and at all levels of complexity (from genes via organisms to ecosystems). Joint modules will lay out the foundations of the area in the first two semesters. Students can specialise in different foci: Social evolution: from gene to ecosystem, tropical ecology, behavioural ecology, geobotany and functional biodiversity research,, conservation and limnology (with specialisation on rivers in Freiburg and on lakes in Konstanz). Modules from each of these areas as well as of functional morphology of plants and bionics and from the Faculty ‘Umwelt und Natürliche Ressourcen can be combined freely. The master thesis can deal with topics within these research fields.

Content and structure of the Major Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

1

First semester

1
2

Second semester

2
3

Third semester

3
4

Fourth semester

4

Faculty contributing to this Major

Jonathan Milne Henshaw

Henshaw, Jonathan

Theoretical Biology

Judith Korb

Korb, Judith

Evolution and Ecology: From Ecology to Genes

Kuss, Patrick

Geobotany

Oliver Niehuis

Niehuis, Oliver

Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Biodiversity

Michael Scherer-Lorenzen

Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael

Geobotany