Students

Curriculum

The Ecology core requirements are few and flexible. Students must meet these requirements, as well as any additional ones of their home department.

Requirements

The degree is research-based and requires a thesis or dissertation.
The Ecology Center (EC) schedules regular seminars throughout the school year with ecological scientists from other participating institutions. Ecology majors are required to attend or view a minimum of 10 such lectures per 1-credit Ecology Seminar course. Eight (8) of these lectures MUST be EC Seminars, either by attending the seminars we host each semester in-person, OR by watching recordings of previous EC seminars on the EC website or YouTube Channel. The remaining two required seminars can be ecologically-related seminars offered by other departments on campus, OR Ecology Center Seminars (in person or recordings). Live attendance is greatly encouraged, with the use of recordings meant to supplement those unable to attend live seminars due to extenuating circumstances. This 1-credit course is offered in both the Spring and Fall Semester and students will be required to fulfill the attendance requirement for their enrolled semester (BIOL/ENVS/PSC/WATS/WILD 6870).
- MS students must pass the 1-credit Ecology Seminar at least two times during their program of study.
- PhD students must pass the 1-credit Ecology Seminar at least three times during their program of study.
The degree requires some demonstrated breadth of knowledge in Ecology, most often satisfied with courses from the topical Blocks listed below.
- MS students must take three credits each from two of the Blocks.
- PhD students must take three credits each from three of the Blocks.

Students may substitute other courses from the same topical area by request of the graduate supervisory committee to the Ecology Center Director.

Block #1: Biophysical Ecology

CEE 6740 Environmental Quality Modeling/Surface Water Quality Modeling (Neilson) (Fall)
GEOS/PSC/WATS 5680/6680 Paleoclimatology (Rittenour) (Spring even years)
GEOS/WATS 6150 Fluvial Geomorphology (Wheaton) (Fall)
PSC 6130 Soil Genesis, Morphology, and Classification (Boettinger) (Fall)
PSC 5500/6500 Environmental Physics of Land Ecosystems and Climate (Hipps) (Spring)
PSC 6820 Environmental Biophysics (Hipps) (Spring)
WATS 6840 Ecohydraulics (Wheaton) (Spring even years)
WILD 3100 Introduction to Wildland Fire (Yocom) (Fall)
WILD/PSC 5350/6350 Wildland Soils (Kulmatiski) (Fall)

Block #2: Organismic, Population, and Evolutionary Ecology

BIOL 5530 Insect Systematics and Evolution (von Dohlen) (Fall, every 2-4 years)
BIOL 6240 Physiological Ecology of Vertebrates (French) (Fall odd years)
BIOL 6260 Behavioral Ecology (Not currently offered)
BIOL 5600/6600 Comparative Animal Physiology (French) (Fall)
WATS 5310 Ecology and Restoration of Wetland and Riparian Plants (Kettenring) (Fall)
WATS 6230/7230 Fish Ecology (Budy) (Spring odd years)
WATS 6900 Wetland Field Botany, 1.5 credits (Kettering, Schultz) (Offered last week of summer but students register for in fall)
WILD 6400 Ecology of Animal Populations (Masters of Natural Resources-specific: speak with Dan MacNulty before registering)
WILD 6550 Wildlife Behavioral Ecology (Conover) (Spring)
WILD 6600 Graduate Ecology (Manlove) (Fall)
WILD 6720/7720 Advanced Conservation Biology (Beard) (Spring)
WILD 6900 Disease Ecology (Manlove) (Spring)
WILD 7400 Plant Population Ecology (Schupp) (Fall, final offering in Fall 2024)

Block #3: Community, Ecosystem, and Landscape Ecology

BIOL 6010 Biogeography (not currently offered)
BIOL/PSC/WILD 6200 Biogeochemistry of Terrestrial Ecosystems (TBD) (Fall)
BIOL 6210/6750 Measuring and Modeling the Terrestrial C Cycle (Waring) (Spring even years)
WATS 6110 Environmental Biogeochemistry (Brahney) (Fall)
WATS 6310 Wetland Ecology and Management (Kettenring) (Fall odd years)
WILD/WATS 6700 Restoration Ecology (Kettenring/Veblen) (Fall even years)
WILD 5700 Forest Assessment & Management (DeRose) (Spring)
WILD 6600 Graduate Ecology (Manlove) (Fall)
WILD 6710 Landscape Ecology (Stuber) (Fall)
WILD 6730 Forest Community Ecology (Lutz) (Fall odd years)
WILD 6770 Community Ecology (Adler, TBD) (Fall even years)
WATS 6820/7820 Stream Ecology (Hawkins) (Fall)
WATS 6900 Basic Wetland Delineation, 1.5 credits (Kettenring, Norman) (Offered last week of summer but students register for in fall)
WILD 6900 Invasion Ecology (Beard) (TBD)
WILD 6900 Disease Ecology (Manlove) (Spring)
WILD 6900 Fire Ecology (Yocom) (spring)
WILD 7000 Theory and Applications of Wildland Ecosystem Management (TBD) (TBD)

Block #4: Quantitative Ecology

BIOL 6270 Ecology: Concepts & Theory (Beckman) (Fall, odd years)
GEOG 4950/6950 Geospatial Analysis in R (Howe) (TBD)
MATH 6910.002 Topics in Mathematical Biology and Ecology (Variable Instructors) (Spring even years)
MATH 6910.003 Topics in Mathematical Biology and Ecology (Variable Instructors) (Spring even years)
MATH 6820.004 Topics in Mathematical Biology and Ecology (Variable Instructors) (Spring even years)
MATH 6910.005 Topics in Mathematical Biology and Ecology (Variable Instructors) (Spring even years)
STAT 5000/6000 Biostatistics Methods (Stephens) (Spring)
STAT 5120 Stat Methods for Rates and Proportions (Fall)
STAT 5200 Design of Experiments Class (Various) (Fall, Spring)
STAT 5570/6570 Statistical Bioinformatics (Stevens) (Fall odd years)
STAT 5600 Applied Multivariate Statistics (R. Cutler) (Spring)
STAT 5650 Statistical Learning and Data Mining (R. Cutler) (Spring)
WATS 6050 Aquatic Ecosystem and Water Resource Systems Modeling (Null) (Fall alternating odd years)
STAT 6200 Generalized Linear Mixed Models (Coster) (Spring)
WATS 6900 Parameter estimation and modeling for natural resource management (Walsworth) (Fall)
WATS 6900 Hydrologic Modeling for Watershed Sciences (Null) (Fall, Spring, Summer)
WILD 6500 Design and Analysis of Ecological Experiments Using R (Manlove) (Fall)
WILD 6900 Ecological Dynamics and Forecasting (Adler) (Fall)
WILD 6900 Reproducible Data Science (TBD) (Spring and Fall)

Block #5: Human Ecology

Policy:

ASTE 5260/6260 Environmental Aspects of Agricultural Systems (Miller) (Fall)
ENVS 6320/7320 Water Law and Policy in the United States (Endter-Wada) (TBD)

Recreation:

ENVS 6400 Ecological Aspects of Wildland Recreation (Monz) (Spring)

Planning:

LAEP 6110 Landscape Planning for Wildlife (Hirschfeld) (Fall)
LAEP 6200 Bioregional Analysis and Planning (Licon) (Fall)
LAEP 6270 Site Analysis: Social, Behavioral, and Biophysical Dimensions (Johnson) (Fall)

Economics, and Sustainability, and Translational Science:

APEC 5560 Natural Resource and Environmental Economics (Li) (Spring)
APEC 5950 Applied Economics Policy: Environmental Benefit Cost Analysis (Not currently offered) *will be assigned a new course number
ENVS 6010 Applying Human Dimension to Natural Resource Management (Hedin) (Spring, online)
WILD 6100 Science Communication (Young) (Spring)
ENVS 6350 Ecological Economics (Lant) (Spring Even Years, subject to change)
ENVS 6410 Translational Ecology (TBD) (TBD)
ENVS 5550/6550 Sustainability: Concepts and Measurement (Tainter) (Spring)
PSC 6070 Advanced Agroecology (Reeve) (Spring)
ENVS 4950/6900 Humans & Global Change Ecology (Osbourne) (Spring)

Anthropology, History, Psychology, and Sociology:

ANTH 5340/6340 Archaeology of the Desert West (Finley) (Fall, odd years)
ENVS 6300/7300 Conservation Psychology (TBD) (TBD)
SOC 6620 Environment, Technology, and Social Change (Givens) (Fall, even years)
SOC 6630 Natural Resources and Social Development (Ulrich-Schad) (Fall)
SOC 6800 Multispecies Justice and Indigenous Approaches to the Environment (Spring)

*Abbreviations - Biology (BIOL), Environment & Society (ENVS), Geography (GEOG), Geosciences (GEOS), Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning (LAEP), Plant Soils and Climate (PSC), Sociology (SOC), Watershed Sciences (WATS), Wildland Resources (WILD)

Specializations:

Climate Adaptation Science (CAS):

Graduate students from any of the CAS program's 10 affiliated departments can apply for this 9-credit specialization. The Climate Adaptation Science program closely integrates research, instruction, work-place experience, and collaborations among scientists, federal, state, and local land and resource managers, policy-makers, trainees, and citizen stakeholders. The program emphasizes interdisciplinary research and includes training in informatics, modeling, communication, leadership, project management, risk assessment, decision-making under uncertainty, and interdisciplinary teamwork. Trainees acquire primary disciplinary expertise in their departmental major degree fields. All trainees acquire facility in working on problems that span, and in teams that include, the full range of climate-adaptation-related disciplines. For additional information about the program, including eligibility requirements and application instructions, please visit the CAS website.

Forest Ecology

Within the Ecology MS and PhD degrees in the Wildland Resources Department a student also can choose to pursue a Specialization in Forest Ecology, which will appear on their transcript if completed. To opt for the Specialization in Forest Ecology, select it when you fill out your committee form or enter it under your plan description in your program of study. Required elements for this specialization include:

Any three (3) of the courses in Table 1 for MS students.
Any four (4) of the courses in Table 1, plus one (1) more course from any Ecology Center block for PhD students.

The remaining credit hours for the degree are determined by the student and their committee.

Table 1. Currently Offered Classes
Course	Name	Offered	Ecology Block	Instructor
WILD 3100	Introduction to Wildland Fire	Every fall	Block #1	Yocom
WILD 5700	Forest Assessment & Management	Every spring	Block #3	DeRose
WILD 5710	Forest Vegetation Disturbance Ecology & Management	Every other fall (even)	Block #3	Yocom
WILD 6350	Wildland Soils	Every fall	Block #1	Kulmatiski
WILD 6570	Forest Ecology of the Sierra and White Mountains	Summer only (first half)	Block #3	Lutz
WILD 6730	Forest Community Ecology	Every other fall (odd)	Block #3	Lutz
WILD 6900	Fire Ecology	Fall every other year (odd)	Block #1	Yocom
WILD 7400	Plant Population Ecology	Every fall	Block #2	Schupp
PSC 6130	Soil Genesis, Morphology, and Classification	Every fall	Block #1	Boettinger
WILD 6710	Landscape Ecology	Every spring	Block #1	Stuber

Funding

Financial Support Opportunities For Ecology Graduate Students

Graduate students working on Ecology degrees are eligible to apply for the following types of support. All depend on availability of funds and worthiness of the application.

Partial support for travel to regional or national professional meetings in which you present a paper or poster as first or sole author. Application is made by your major professor, who should describe the meeting (name, location, dates), the title and type of the presentation, authorship and an estimated budget. This is best done by e-mail to Ecology Center Director, Dr. Peter Adler. Support will depend on availability of funds, the nature of the meeting, and other meetings in the current year for which the Ecology Center supports your travel. Occasionally, the Ecology Center may contribute to costs of participation in an international meeting.
Graduate research awards (currently up to $5,000 per year). To assist in thesis or dissertation research, these are offered competitively in spring of each year and you may apply in two consecutive years. A proposal is required. Calls for proposals will be announced in early January each year, and those who are awarded funding will receive access to those funds on July 1st.
Sometimes, the Ecology Center may award a few PhD assistantships. When available, this award competition is announced in the spring and requires a proposal.
Finishing-up funds. If you have no other sources of support, are in residence at USU working on completion of your MS or PhD degree, and are within three months of defending your thesis or dissertation, you may apply for this one-time award of up to $2,000. A one-page proposal is required and should indicate your progress, work yet to be accomplished, and anticipated defense date. The proposal must be submitted and endorsed by your major professor.

Prospective Students

Ecology is increasingly interdisciplinary, and ecologists have diverse training backgrounds. The Ecology program at Utah State includes affiliated faculty from 11 departments in 5 colleges and fellow students with many different interests. The Ecology curriculum is research-based and includes a common but flexible core of seminars and courses, along with specific departmental degree requirements and a research thesis or dissertation.

Acceptance into the Ecology degree program requires acceptance by a faculty who will serve as advisor for the degree program. If you are interested in studying Ecology at Utah State, you should contact the Faculty Associate(s) whose areas of research align with your professional interests. Inquiries sent to the Ecology Center will be routed to appropriate department(s), department head(s), or faculty member(s).

Application should be made to:

The School of Graduate Studies
Utah State University
0900 Old Main Hill
Logan, Utah 84322-0900
(Phone: 435-797-1189, Fax: 435-797-1192)

More Information

The department of interest should be specified. Departments offering Ecology MS and PhD degrees are:

USU does not offer an Ecology degree through the Geosciences department; however, MS and PhD students in Geosciences who are specializing in Sedimentology and Paleoecology, or Geomorphology and Earth Surface Processes can become Ecology Center affiliates with access to the benefits the Ecology Center has to offer. Please contact the Ecology Center with questions or for more information.

Utah State offers a variety of competitive graduate scholarship and fellowship opportunities (see also Departmental and College webpages). Also, the National Science Foundation offers Graduate Research Fellowships through a competitive process.

Graduate Student Resources

Help us populate this page with information that you think would be useful to other graduate students.

Email suggestions to ecology.center@usu.edu or stop by and chat with Thad in NR314.