Section of Ecology
The Section of Ecology provides teaching at the BSc, MSc and PhD levels. Teaching in the section emphasizes ecological theory and methodology, and we try to provide students with good baseline skills for conducting research. It is quite common for students to be recruited into research projects at the section while they are studying for their MSc degree. From the viewpoint of student employment it is important that theory and applied aspects are well balanced. The main employment possibilities after graduation are in teaching, research and administration.
Research in the Section of Ecology covers wide disciplines of ecology from theoretical, observational and experimental topics to more applied ones. Many researchers in the section are involved in "Ecological interactions and Ecological Genetics" –research which has been chosen as one of six focal areas of strength at the University of Turku. In addition, there are strong teams studying questions in evolutionary, behavioural and environmental ecology. Our researchers work in teams that have close domestic and international research network connections, and our personnel include many foreign researchers and PhD students. Recently, Nordic Centre of Excellence status (years 2011–2015) was assigned to the Nordic research group in tundra ecology. This NCoE is led by Prof. Lauri Oksanen and its subprojects employ many researchers.