About the Department

The Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (EEB), is devoted to the study of ecological and evolutionary processes in marine and terrestrial and freshwater environments. The past 30 years have seen several revolutions in our understanding of how the biological world works. Advances in both analytical and genetic methods have given us a far more sophisticated understanding of the complexities of ecological and evolutionary processes in the natural world. Biologists at UCSC have played and will continue to play an important part in these advances, and the campus programs offer unique educational opportunities in biology that feature small class sizes and extensive faculty-student interactions.

Class offerings, as well as research opportunities, focus on the varied natural environments in the Monterey Bay region, throughout the western US, and in more distant locations such as Mexico, Tahiti, Australia, and the Far East. This emphasis on field studies is a unique focus of our variety of undergraduate majors, within this context they address not only basic ecological and evolutionary processes, but also the application of this knowledge to improve conservation strategies and environmental quality.