Ecological and Evolutionary Biology

The Ecological and Evolutionary Biology programme from Masaryk University graduates are familiar with current and advanced working methods and knowledge particularly in the field of plant and animal taxonomy, biosystematics, ecology, palaeoecology, parasitology, hydrobiology, bioinformatics, biostatistics, molecular biology and genetics.

The  Ecological and Evolutionary Biology programme from Masaryk University has two primary forms, the on-campus (full-time) and off-campus (combined) form, which differ particularly in their requirements for students’ permanent presence at the institution and their participation in teaching. Students of the full-time form may obtain regular scholarship depending on the Faculty rules. A change from the full-time to the combined form of the study is possible upon a student’s request.

The programme’s broad scope is divided into five specializations: Botany, Ecology, Hydrobiology, Parasitology, and Zoology. These specializations are defined both by the taxa studied and the methods used. They are not clearly discrete but may overlap in some topics, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of current biology.

Career opportunities

Graduates of this doctoral programme are prepared for independent work in academic and research institutions focusing on biological sciences, education, agriculture, forestry, veterinary and pharmacy, nature conservation institutions, nature history departments of museums, and private companies or non-government organizations focusing on nature conservation, human and animal health, and environmental protection, both in the Czech Republic and abroad.

Individual working groups of the Department of Botany and Zoology cover a broad range of research topics, in which doctoral students are trained within individual programme’s specializations, for example:

• Plant and animal diversity and its causes

• Taxonomy and phylogeny of selected taxa

• Palaeoecological studies in selected regions and time periods

• Invasions of non-native species and their impacts

• Macroecological patterns in plant and animal assemblages

• Impact of climatic change on populations, communities and ecosystems

• Variation in plant genome size

• Molecular, ecological, evolutionary and behavioural interactions in host-parasite systems

• Diversity and phylogeny of selected host groups

• Interspecific interactions, e.g. between predator and prey