Course summary

Our PhD/MPhil Environmental Biology programme enables you to undertake a research project that will improve understanding of Environmental Biology. Animals, microorganisms and plants live in environments to which they have become adapted through millions of years of evolution. They often have to respond to changes which may be biotic or abiotic in nature, and, increasingly, to anthropogenic perturbations which have resulted in global environmental change. To understand how organisms respond and interact with one another in their natural and man-made habitats, a wide spectrum of approaches is employed ranging from molecular biology to population biology. State-of-the-art facilities for 'controlled environments' are used to regulate climate variables and to study interactions between species. These include controlled environment rooms, animal facilities and insectaries. Research projects involve both laboratory and field studies in temperate, arctic and tropical habitats. Examples of areas of investigation include: seasonal and hormonal regulation of animal behaviour; reproductive strategies of plants; animal & microbes and their evolution; phenotypic plasticity and quantitative genetics; strategies of adaption in a changing world;