EEB 5220a, General Ecology  Michelle Wong and David Post

A broad consideration of the theory and practice of ecology, including the ecology of individuals, population dynamics and regulation, community structure, ecosystem function, and ecological interactions on broad spatial and temporal scales. Topics such as climate change, fisheries management, and infectious disease are placed in an ecological context.
MWF 10:30am-11:20am

EEB 5255a, Invertebrates  Casey Dunn

An overview of animal diversity that explores themes including animal phylogenetics (evolutionary relationships), comparative studies of evolutionary patterns across species, organism structure and function, and the interaction of organisms with their environments. Most animal lineages are marine invertebrates, so marine invertebrates are the focus of most of the course. Concurrent enrollment in E&EB 5556L is not required.
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

EEB 5256La, Laboratory for Invertebrates  Casey Dunn

The study of invertebrate anatomy and diversity in a laboratory and field setting. Activities include examination of live animals and museum specimens, as well as local field trips. Some field trips fall on weekends. Must be taken concurrently with E&EB 555.  ½ Course cr
Th 1:30pm-4:30pm

EEB 6500a and EEB 6501b, Advanced Topics in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology  Vanessa Ezenwa

Topics to be announced. Graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory.
M 2:30pm-4:30pm

EEB 6545a, Responsible Conduct of Research  Vanessa Ezenwa

This five-week discussion seminar considers issues related to the responsible conduct of research. Topics addressed include research misconduct, plagiarism, data acquisition and management, mentoring and collaboration, authorship and peer review, the use of animals and humans in scientific research, sexual harassment, diversity, and balancing professional and personal life. Graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory.  0 Course cr
HTBA

EEB 6901a or b, Research Rotation I  Vanessa Ezenwa

Research Rotation I
HTBA

EEB 6902a or b, Research Rotation II  Vanessa Ezenwa

Research Rotation II
HTBA

EEB 7520a, The Symmorphosis Debate: How Functionally Optimized are Organisms?  Robert Cieri

A central question in evolutionary biology is the extent to which organismal traits are optimized to match functional demands. Early adaptationist approaches often inferred function from form without rigorous testing. Subsequent work emphasized constraints, historical contingency, and nonadaptive processes, complicating simple optimization narratives. In parallel, advances in biomechanics and comparative physiology provided quantitative tools to evaluate organismal performance. This course assesses symmorphosis—the hypothesis that structural design is quantitatively matched to functional demand—as a focal framework for testing optimality in biological systems. A central difficulty in evaluating optimality is that multiple functional demands can be invoked to explain any given trait, and that evidence for optimal or economical design in organisms is often indirect or difficult to quantify. Rather than attempting to assess overall adaptive quality, symmorphosis, as proposed by Ewald Weibel and colleagues, evaluates optimization by examining how closely supply and demand are matched across multiple physiological systems. In this view, “no more structure is formed and maintained than is required to satisfy functional need,” implying that components within a functional pathway are matched in capacity and that no step is systematically overbuilt. Analyses of the vertebrate oxygen cascade provided partial support for this idea, with many internal components appearing matched in capacity, though notable mismatches occur at interfaces such as the lung–environment boundary. In this seminar graduate students are introduced to the adaptation debate in the context of biomechanics and physiology, with a focus on evaluating symmorphosis as a framework for understanding biological optimality. Students learn common approaches for quantifying organismal performance, critically evaluate adaptationist and non-adaptationist explanations, and assess the extent to which functional systems are optimized. They also design and evaluate tests of symmorphosis in biological systems where it has not yet been explicitly applied. The course begins with lectures covering the historical development of the adaptation debate and key empirical evidence, followed by discussion of foundational papers. Students then lead discussions of contemporary studies addressing biological optimization in light of symmorphosis. In the final phase of the seminar, the class collaboratively develops a perspective or review paper on symmorphosis and optimality, with the goal of submission to a peer-reviewed journal. Assessment is based on participation in discussions, leadership of assigned readings, and contributions to the collaborative manuscript.
T 1:30pm-3:25pm

EEB 7713a, Leveraging Novel Technologies and AI for Biodiversity Monitoring and Conservation  Walter Jetz

With ever-growing threats to species worldwide, decision-relevant information is needed to empower local communities, businesses, governments, and conservation practitioners to deliver biodiversity outcomes. Rapidly advancing technologies such as visual and acoustic sensors, eDNA, UAV-based survey approaches, community science, GPS-tracking, computer vision and AI-informed organismal detections and identifications, are hailed as central to this goal and as avenues to accelerate our understanding of biodiversity across scales. This year’s EEB 713 course will survey and critically assess novel technological avenues for local wildlife monitoring and species assessment. We will explore their potential to support global biodiversity monitoring at large and to advance ecological concepts. Each week, we will evaluate a different technology arena and discuss its scalability and potential impact in applied and basic ecological contexts. We will focus specifically on the use of these methods in currently understudied regions, such as the tropics, and assess the emerging opportunities, as well as limitations and risks, around overcoming existing information and knowledge biases and inequities. Finally, we will identify the opportunities for integrating different technologies combined with remote sensing to support a more robust monitoring of planetary biodiversity change. The course will consist of faculty, guest, and participant presentations addressing specific themes, followed by group discussions. Course participants will be expected to read literature around both the application and potential broader scientific relevance of new technologies. The course will draw on some of our own engagement in the recent XPrize Rainforest Final and the upcoming CBD COP 16 and will include select guest presentations from these arenas. Target meeting time is W 3pm at 310 Prospect. Meeting time may be changed by consensus.
W 3pm-5pm

EEB 7716a, The Architecture of Evolvability: The Collected Works of Gunter P. Wagner  Brandon Ogbunu

This graduate seminar explores the major intellectual contributions of Gunter P. Wagner, Alison Richard Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and one of the most influential evolutionary theorists of the past four decades. Wagner reshaped how biologists think about evolvability, modularity, homology, and developmental constraint by integrating population genetics, developmental biology, comparative methods, and philosophy of biology. The seminar examines his foundational analyses of variational properties and the genotype–phenotype map; his formal treatments of modularity and character identity; and his collaborative work on innovation, robustness, and the origin of novel traits. Through close reading of primary literature, students engage with Wagner’s efforts to unify theory, comparative biology, and molecular approaches into a coherent account of how variation is structured and how biological novelty arises. Designed for students interested in the theoretical foundations of evolutionary biology, the seminar centers on the enduring tension between constraint and innovation in complex biological systems.
T 1:30pm-3:25pm

EEB 7762a / EPS 7762, Ecology of Landforms  Eric Slessarev

This course is a combined graduate research seminar and research practicum that  explores the linkage between ecological and geomorphic processes—between biology at Earth’s surface and the shape and structure of that surface. This course is centered around two skill-building activities: (1) a series of presentations in which students deliver short mock lectures, lead subsequent discussion, and receive constructive feedback from the class; (2) a series of quantitative workshops (held in alternate weeks) in which the class collaboratively designs and codes a model or model(s) that relate to ecological and geomorphic processes. A primary focus of this course is understanding how biogeochemical cycles play out across hillslopes, watersheds, and fluvial landforms. Depending on student interest we may also address questions relating community ecology, population ecology, or evolutionary processes to landscape structure. Students should expect to hone their presentation skills and quantitative toolset, particularly with respect to spatial analysis and numerical modeling.
T 9:25am-11:20am

EEB 7856a, Special Topics in the Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases  Paul Turner

Historically, pathogens and the diseases they cause were viewed largely from a biomedical perspective focused on interactions between pathogens and their human hosts. However, in the last few decades, the importance of studying pathogens from an ecological and evolutionary perspective has gained significant traction. These perspectives inform our understanding of almost all aspects of pathogen-host interactions from transmission dynamics and zoonotic disease spillover to the evolution of virulence and drug resistance. In this seminar, we dissect current and classic literature on the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases. Specifically, we: (i) discuss fundamental concepts in the field; (ii) identify persistent knowledge gaps; and (iii) explore opportunities for linkages between ecological, evolutionary, and biomedical perspectives.
HTBA