Research and instruction in the Department is directed toward understanding biological systems at the individual, population, and community levels of organization utilizing both plant, animal, and microbial systems. Major research areas pursued by faculty and students include functional morphology, foraging ecology, the adaptive significance of animal behavior, sexual selection in plants and animals, insect mating behavior, plant population genetics, molecular population genetics and evolution, marine community ecology, theoretical population and community ecology, and ecosystem ecology.
Graduate study in ecology and evolutionary biology at Brown University leads to the PhD degree. A core of faculty and postdoctoral researchers engaged in cutting edge research guides students. Students further benefit from the Department's academic collaborations across University and Alpert Medical School departments and programs. The Brown/Marine Biological Laboratory Joint Graduate Program offers students an opportunity to work with faculty at both Brown and the renowned MBL in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Faculty and students are also active prominently in the Environmental Change Initiative, a multidisciplinary center at Brown tackling the complex issues undergirding environmental change.