Ecological Sciences

The primary goal of the doctoral program in ecological sciences is to provide advanced training in ecological, evolutionary and integrative biology. The program has notable strengths in a broad range of biological subdisciplines, including ecosystem studies, experimental ecology, population biology, conservation biology, systematics, evolutionary biology, biomechanics, and comparative and functional morphology.

Program faculty conduct studies in a variety of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments on several continents, and their research focuses on a broad spectrum of taxa, including, but not limited to, vascular plants, polychaetes, mollusks, crustaceans, insects, fishes, amphibians, and reptiles.

• The program is enhanced by excellent on-campus resources that include a scanning electron microscopy lab, sequencing lab, herbarium, aquatics laboratory, water tunnel facility, GIS facilities, greenhouse, and digital imaging facilities. Field research sites have been established in the Virginia Coastal Reserve, Blackwater Ecological Preserve, Great Dismal Swamp, Atlantic Ocean, Chesapeake Bay, and other areas.
• Many faculty combine active field research with parallel laboratory studies. Quantitative approaches are encouraged and the opportunity exists to obtain a master's degree in statistics while pursuing a doctorate in Ecological Sciences.