Ecology
|
Contact: Prof. Owen Petchey |
|
OVERVIEW AND EDUCATION GOALS
Ecology is about understanding the links between organisms, populations, communities and ecosystems. These links, which include processes such as predation, mutualism and parasitism, determine how environmental change will impact ecological communities and the services that humans derive from them.
In the Ecology Masters you learn about the latest ecological research from the people performing it and have the opportunity to conduct a research project in one of many research groups. A wide range of organisms and ecosystems can be studied, from microbes to tortoises and glacial streams to alpine meadows. Approaches can be observational, experimental and theoretical or a combination of these.
The Ecology Masters welcomes students from any University with a suitable undergraduate degree (you need not have studied at the University of Zurich or in Switzerland).
DEGREE
Master of Science in Biology, Ecology
DURATION / ECTS
The course is part taught (20 credit points), part research (60 credit points) and part review of understanding (10 credit points). The research part is performed as an independent Master thesis, supervised by an expert.
Outstanding students have the possibility to apply via the “Fast Track Programme” to combine the Masters and PhD studies.
LANGUAGE
English
ADMISSION
All students with a suitable bachelor's degree (e.g., Biology), ideally including some previous study of ecology, and with a good knowledge of English can apply. Matriculated biology bachelors of UZH can enter without an application to the Central Admissions Office.
Watch our latest video...
WHAT NOW?
Professor Petchey holds regular advice and information sessions. See here for how to chat with Professor Petchey about studying ecology at the University of Zurich: www.thetrophiclink.org
POTENTIAL RESEARCH PROJECTS
Click here for a list of some of the Masters thesis projects on offer.
ASSOCIATED UNIVERSITY RESEARCH GROUPS
| Research group: | Research interests: | Affiliation: |
| Spatial Ecology and Remote Sensing |
Ecosystem-climate interactions, Arctic ecosystems, land surface-atmosphere interaction, albedo and energy budget, remote sensing of vegetation, spatial ecology, animal movement ecology
|
Dr. Gabriela Schaepman-Strub, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, UZH |
| Population Biology and Global Environmental Change | Population ecology; biodemography; life-history evolution; evolutionary biology; metapopulation dynamics; wildlife disease dynamics; quantitative methods for the analysis and management of animal populations | Prof. Dr. Arpat Ozgul, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, UZH |
| Cooperation and Social Structuring in Mammals | Animal behaviour; social evolution; social behaviour; social selection; energetics and immunology of lactation; kin recognition; conservation biology; animal welfare of lab and zoo animals | Prof. Dr. Barbara König, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, UZH |
| Biology of Species Interactions | Plant decision making; plant growth and competition; invasion biology; ecology and genetics of small populations; life-history evolution of clonal organisms; transgene x environment interactions; evolutionary plant genetics and epigenetic; mechanisms of plant competition and coexistence; plant–animal interactions; community assembly; community genetics and evolution; biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships | Prof. Dr. Bernhard Schmid, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, UZH |
| Community Ecology | Metapopulation and metacommunity ecology in aquatic systems; dispersal and invasion dynamics in dendritic river-landscapes; biodiversity; effects of climate change on butterflies and moths | Prof. Dr. Florian Altermatt, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, UZH |
| Islands and Interactions | Plant-animal interactions; island biology; ecological networks; mutualisms; conservation and restoration biology; rewilding | Dr. Dennis Hansen, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, UZH |
| Pollination and Mating Systems | Plant-pollinator interactions; pollinator behaviour and floral evolution; chemical ecology of floral signals; pollinator driven plant speciation; evolution of floral mimicry | Prof. Dr. Florian Schiestl, Institute of Systematic Botany, UZH |
| Inland Water Ecosystems | Food web structure and substrate availability in freshwater and marine habitats; microbial ecology; microbial adaptation; biogeography and population dynamics; life strategies; bacterial ecotypes; indicator organisms of water pollution; community composition of freshwater and coastal microbial assemblages; infochemicals | Prof. Dr. Jakob Pernthaler, Department of Limnology, Institute of Plant Biology, UZH |
| Evolutionary Ecology of Environmental Change | Population and community ecology; evolution of plasticity; conservation genetics | Dr. Josh Van Burskirk, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, UZH |
| Evolutionary and Ecological Genomics | Molecular basis of biodiversity; evolutionary and ecological genomics; evolution of mating systems; speciation by genome duplication (polyploidization); predicting evolutionary and plastic responses in changing environments | Prof. Dr. Kentaro K. Shimizu, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, UZH |
| Evolutionary Ecology and Genetics of Natural Populations | Evolutionary ecology; population and quantitative genetics; conservation biology | Prof. Dr. Lukas Keller, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, UZH |
| Causes and Consequences of Extinction | Population, community, and ecosystem ecology; effects of environmental change; modelling biological systems; statistical computing | Prof. Dr. Owen Petchey, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, UZH |
| Invertebrate Behavioral and Evolutionary Ecology | Evolutionary ecology; evolution of animal life histories; body size and sexual dimorphism; phenotypic plasticity to thermal adaptation | Prof. Dr. Wolf Blanckenhorn, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, UZH |
EXTERNAL ORGANISATIONS
| Collaborators: | Research interests: | Organisation: |
| karch: Swiss amphibian and reptile conservation programme | Amphibians; chytridiomycosis; conservation biology; demography; disease ecology; distributions; evidence-based conservation; mark-recapture models; monitoring; population dynamics; site occupancy models | Dr. Benedikt Schmidt, karch |
| Ecological Farming and Arable-Crop System | Soil biodiversity; plant biodiversity and ecosystem functioning; microbial diversity; symbiotic associations between plants and soil microbes; plant-soil interactions, ecosystem sustainability; development of ecological farming systems | Prof. Dr. Marcel van der Heijden, Agroscope: Swiss research into agriculture, nutrition and the environment |
| Bat Conservation Switzerland | Bat conservation and protection; spatial ecology; protection of endangered species; environmental awareness programs; environmental education; recovery programs; human bat conflicts | Dr. Hans-Peter Stutz, Bat Conservation Switzerland |
| Swiss Ornithological Institute | Bird monitoring; population trends; status assessment; ecological research; population dynamics; stress and disturbances; bird migration; recovery programs for priority species; conservation and enhancement of habitats; conflicts between birds and humans | PD Dr. Lukas Jenni, PD Dr. Gilberto Pasinelli and Dr. Marc Kéry, Vogelwarte Sempach |
| eawag | Spatial dynamics; groundwater; parasites; food webs; adaptation; streams; plankton; endosymbionts; decomposition | Dr. Katja Raesaenen, Dr. Christopher Robinson, Dr. Florian Altermatt and Dr. Francesco Pomati, eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology |
| WSL | Patterns of biodiversity in riparian ecosystems; population biology of threatened species; monitoring of habitat quality; ecological processes within landscapes; species adaptation to changing environments; biological control | Prof. Dr. Rolf Holderegger and Dr. Kurt Bollmann, WSL: Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research |