Biological and Environmental Sciences

Ecology and Ecosystem Sciences

Curriculum

The Ecology and Ecosystems (EES) group brings together faculty and graduate students to solve problems at the forefront of ecology and ecosystem science. We define ecology broadly; our research interests cover the spectrum of biological organization from microbes to ecosystems, and take us to terrestrial and aquatic habitats worldwide. Our work is an exciting mix of basic research on natural systems, coupled with work designed to inform social policy, resource management, and conservation practices.

Core courses: All students are strongly recommended to take the following 5 credits of coursework plus 4 credits of seminars (the student will consult with their graduate committee to determine the additional 9+ credits of coursework – see table below for details):
BES 550: Advanced Ecology (4 credits, taken in the fall of the first year). Introduction to ecological principles and processes with an emphasis on theory and methods.
BES 500: Advanced Scientific Ethics (1 credit, taken in the fall of the first year). This course focuses on the ethics of scientific research. Students are encouraged to also consider taking the companion course (BES 501, Advanced Scientific Communication, 2 credits)
BES 600: Graduate Seminar in BES (1 credit, taken twice; spring semester only). Graduate students provide one talk on their proposed research in the early phase of their careers and one talk on their research results in a later phase. This seminar is designed to create an active student body knowledgeable about their peer’s research, and foster collegiality among the student body and mentoring of younger grads by senior grads and faculty. Students must take this twice for credit (i.e. two presentations are required), but students are required to attend the seminar each semester when in residence at URI.
BES 581 & 582: BES Colloquium, (1 credit, taken twice). All BES faculty and graduate students participate and take turns hosting the seminar.
Summary of proposed credit structure: All students are expected to take at least 5 credits of core courses, 2 credits of Grad seminar, and 2 credits of BES seminar, for a total of 9 credits. For MSc and PhD students this leaves 9+ credits for other courses.

*MSc students are required to take 6-9 research credits; the remaining credits can be taken as Special Problems course(s) or additional coursework. Note that current URI Graduate School policy (Section 7.44.1 of Graduate Manual) states that MSc students can take a maximum of 9 thesis research (599) credits, whereas for PhD students there is no maximum number of the thesis research (699) credits.

**Coursework for PhD students is decided in close consultation with the student’s PhD committee and with careful consideration of past coursework completed and the student’s career goals. PhD students with a MSc degree can transfer 30 credits from their MSc program and thus must complete at least 42 credits at URI. PhD students without a MSc degree may be allowed to transfer up to 20% of credits (e.g., 15 credits for a 72 credit program) from another institution but restrictions apply (see Section 7.50-54 of Graduate Manual for details). The required 18 course credits is pertinent to all BES PhD students and can be satisfied by transfer course credits with approval of the student’s PhD committee.

***Note: Graduate Certificate in GIS and Remote Sensing (15 credits) is available for EES students. GIS and remote sensing classes can be used to concurrently fulfill the course requirements for a certificate and the MS/PhD degree.

BES MAIN