Ecology, Master of Science

The multidisciplinary programme combines plant ecology, animal ecology, conservation biology and tropical biology. These topics include animal-plant interactions, plant ecophysiology, biodiversity research, climate-change ecology, and the evolutionary adaptations at the physiological and organismic level. Courses in socio-biology, neurogenetics and behaviour as well as ecological courses like forest ecology, chemical ecology, agroecology, soil ecology, remote sensing and ecological modelling can be chosen. Overall, the study programme reaches from molecular biology of single species to all disciplines of organismic biology. Further topics include constraints for plant growth and development (biogeography, biodiversity), the interactions of plants and animals with abiotic and biotic environmental factors (e.g. plant-insect and plant-fungus interactions) including the evolutionary adaptations at the physiological and organismic level, aspects of neurogenetics and behaviour as well as the interaction of individuals, social groups and large populations in complex and variable ecosystems. Using tropical biology with its specialities, unique and general principles in ecology are communicated. Both fundamentals and novel approaches based on molecular biology tools are discussed with respect to organismic biology. The two selected topics are composed of two theory modules as well as a practical course unit each. Further research training is provided in a selected field of interest. The students are actively involved in ongoing research projects, and they learn to independently plan and perform both theoretical and experimental work as well as to summarise and discuss the results obtained in the thesis.