Marine Ecology

Overview

This AOE focuses on the study of ecological processes in marine and coastal habitats. Marine Ecology necessarily incorporates processes operating from individuals to populations and communities to ecosystems, and spanning daily to decadal scales, and meters to global scales. Approaches may be basic, applied, experimental or theoretical, according to the student’s interests. Research projects may be carried out within a broad range of areas, such a behavioral and sensory ecology, community ecology, population dynamics, recruitment dynamics with respect to ocean processes, and other environmental processes, management of marine resources, and marine reserve design, This list is not inclusive, and our AOE can be tailored to the individual student’s needs.

Curriculum for Masters and Ph.D. Programs

All GGE AOE students must fulfill the course requirements of the GGE.  The intent of the GGE AOE curriculum is to provide students interested in marine ecology guidance and additional structure in their coursework.  The GGE AOE recognizes that individual students may have highly diverse interests and needs.  Modifications in the requirements of a student's course program may be made subject to the approval of the GGE AOE Adviser and Chair.

AOE Required Course

All students are required to take the Graduate Core Course in Marine Ecology: ECL 214 (Marine Ecology: Concepts and Practice).

Graduate Seminar: All Marine Ecology-AOE students are required to take at least one ECL 290 seminar (or approved equivalent) dealing with some aspect of marine ecology. This seminar will also satisfy the GGE seminar requirement.

In addition, participants in the Marine Ecology AOE are expected to have either upon admission, or acquire soon after admission, basic knowledge in three key subject areas: Methods, Organisms and Processes. The student and the Guidance Committee should jointly agree on which courses the student should take to fulfill any deficiencies. As a guideline, it is generally recommended that students demonstrate equivalency in at least one course in each of the three areas.

Suggested Courses

The following is a list of UC Davis courses that the faculty consider appropriate for each of these areas:

A. Methods

ECL 231 Mathematical Methods in Population Biology (3) Hastings

ECL 233 Computational Methods in Population Biology (3) Baskett/Schreiber

EVE 180A Experimental Ecology and Evolution in the Field (4) Yang

EVE 180B Experimental Ecology and Evolution in the Field (4) Yang

WFC 100 Field Methods in Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology (4) Eadie, Kelt, Todd, Van Vuren

WFC 122 Population Dynamics and Estimation (4) Botsford

B. Organisms

EVE 112 Biology of Invertebrates (3) Grosberg, Sanford

EVE 114 Experimental Invertebrate Biology (3) Sanford

EVE 106 Mechanical Design in Organisms (3) Gaylord

NPB 102 Mechanisms of Animal Behavior (3) Nevitt

WFC 111 Biology and Conservation of Wild Birds (3) Eadie

WFC 111L Laboratory in Biology and Conservation of Wild Birds (3) Eadie

WFC 120 Biology of Fish (3) Moyle

EVE 105 Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy (Wainwright)

C. Processes

ECL 208 Issues in Conservation Biology (4) Schwartz

ECL 232 Theoretical Ecology (3) Hastings

ECL 262 Advanced Population Dynamics (3) Botsford

ESP 116N Oceanography (3)

ESP 121 Population Ecology (4) Baskett, Hastings

ESP 150A Physical and Chemical Oceanography (4) McClain, Spero, Largier

ESP 150B Geological Oceanography (3) McClain

ESP 150C Biological Oceanography (4)

EVE 115 Marine Ecology (4) Stachowicz

EVE 180A Experimental Ecology and Evolution in the Field (4) Yang

EVE 180B Experimental Ecology and Evolution in the Field (4) Yang

WFC 122 Population Dynamics and Estimation (4) Botsford

WFC 154 Conservation Biology (4) Todd

ESP 152 Coastal Oceanography (Largier)

Contact

Anya Brown, Chair/Advisor, Evolution and Ecology