Ecology

Are you interested in ecology, biological diversity and natural processes? Global environmental challenges such as climate change, natural habitat degradation, and species extinction make ecologists and their skills more important than ever.

Do you want to work with biological monitoring, nature conservation, and ecosystem management? Climate change, habitat loss, and pollution are straining ecosystems worldwide. Ecologists are needed to help understand these issues and come up with solutions.

This program focuses on the following:

• The world's major global ecological challenges, such as biodiversity loss and climate change
• Mitigation of these effects, for example via restoration ecology
• Sustainable ecosystem management

Ecologists play a key role in understanding how humans impact the environment. This knowledge is a prerequisite for combatting important environmental challenges of our time, and when reversing land and water degradation through restoration measures.

NMBU has an extensive course catalogue within ecology and related subjects, which is taught by dedicated teachers and researchers who are experts within their field.

The master's thesis gives you the opportunity to delve into a scientific topic of your choice. We give our students plenty of freedom when it comes to choosing a topic for the thesis. NMBU's ecology students do their fieldwork in many different countries in some of the most spectacular natural landscapes on the planet. Example of previous thesis topics include:

• Carnivore biology and management
• Forest biology and ecology
• Freshwater ecology
• Freshwater fish management
• Insect ecology
• Plant ecology
• Tropical flora and fauna
• Wildlife conservation and management

Job opportunities

Ecologists work in all parts of society where environmental issues are of concern. You will be qualified for tasks related to environmental monitoring, biological conservation, research, and education.

Our alumni work for a variety of employers, ranging from public government, NGOs, research institutions, and the university sector. The programme has a strong research emphasis, and can serve as a foundation for Ph.D. studies.

Here are just some examples of the kinds of jobs our graduates have obtained:

• Biological researcher. Many of our alumni continue with research, either as Ph.D. candidates or research assistants. Previous research projects include carnivore management, entomology, forest biology, fish biology and much more
• Consultant, working with for example impact assessments, habitat restoration and nature and species mapping related to encroachment of nature
• Urban natural resource manager
• Fish and wildlife manager (at various levels of government)
• National park manager

Learning outcomes

As an ecology student you will study nature and natural processes. You will learn about the factors that regulate the structure and diversity of ecosystems. You will also learn about the interactions between humans and ecosystems, including our impacts and their mitigation.

We focus on the significance of biodiversity for ecosystems and underlying causes for the loss of biological diversity. Our goal is to give you an up-to-date knowledge on global environmental change and how it affects organisms and ecosystems.

As a graduate you will be able to plan and conduct independent scientific field work, as well as evaluate, analyse and synthesize the data afterwards. You will also be able to use ecological principles and knowledge from an applied perspective; such as in nature conservation and the management of natural resources.

The following courses are compulsory for all students:

• Conservation biology
• Ecological research
• Global change ecology
• Interdisciplinary collaboration on sustainability
• Methods in natural sciences
• Restoration ecology

In addition, you must choose a minimum of one of the following courses:

• Behavioural and population ecology
• Ecological entomology
• Ecology and management of natural resources in the tropics
• Ecology and management of rivers and lakes
• Environmental pollutants and ecotoxicology
• Forest Ecology
• Human wildlife interactions
• Landscape ecology
• Tropical rainforest ecology and conservation

To make it easier to choose from NMBU's extensive course catalogue, we have created some suggested example plans within the following topics (click on the course code to see course descriptions):

• Tropical Ecology
• Tropical Ecology and Management of Natural Resources
• Entomology and Forest Ecology
• Population and Landscape Ecology
• Freshwater Ecology and Ecotoxicology
• Environmental Pollution

These specializations will provide you with a number of additional skills and competencies.

Learning by doing: the master's thesis
To facilitate extensive hands-on experience, the entire second year is dedicated the master’s thesis (60 ECTS). This enables you to gain extensive fieldwork and data analysis experience, giving you a competitive edge in the job market after graduation. Our master´s students do their fieldwork in many different countries, spread across four continents.

A detailed course structure can be found here.