Study structure

  • Students studying soil organisms

    Students apply heat extraction to reveal the diversity of soil organisms

  • Aktive Vegetationsaufnahme

    Students conducting a vegetation survey

    Vegetation ecology is so relaxing!

  • Studierende sammeln Insekten

    Students taking insect samples

    In order to find out how insect diversity is related to plant diversity, students collect insects in defined and well-characterised plots using a modified leaf vacuum.

Facts & Figures

Duration: 2-year-program

Credits per year: 60

Language of instruction: English

Accreditation/ Evaluation: until September 30, 2027
according to the system accreditation of the University of Bremen by AAQ Swiss agency of accreditation and quality assurance.

Starting point for diverse careers

After they obtained their MSc degree, almost 50% of the Ecology students decide to stay within academia and now work as PhD or postdoctoral students at different ecological research institution around the world.

A large proportion pursue career options at non-university research stations, conservation organisations, authorities and consulting firms.

Degree curriculum

Downloads

  • Structure_Ecology_2024.pdf

    File name: Structure_Ecology_2024.pdf
    Last update: 08.02.2024
  • Module Guide

    Master's Program Ecology for Summer Term 2024

    File name: MT_Module_Guide_for_the_Master_s_Program_Ecology_29097_3b_en.pdf
    Last update: 08.04.2024

Module descriptions

Mentoring

You are not alone!

In our degree program, you will benefit from an individual mentoring module. We will assist you with our many years of professional experience and offer personalised support during your studies, which takes your special skills and interests into account.

Choosing a professor as a personal mentor and talking through your career expectations, helps you not only to find the right partners here at Uni Bremen, but it also gives you access to the academic network of the respective professors.” Elisabeth Riedel, Alumna of the MSc Ecology program, Bremen.

Mandatory modules

MOE-ConcEcol: Important concepts in different sub-disciplines of ecology: from autecology to ecosystems.

MOE-DataAnal: The consequences of experimental design for data analysis.

MOE-SciWri: Motivation for scientific writing; how to get started; variability, basic structure and contents of the single parts of a scientific publication.

MOE-MolEcol: Molecular-based community analysis, molecular markers and their use in ecological studies.

MOE-PopEcol: Students will be provided with a sound knowledge about important concepts in population ecology, can explain such concepts and can plan and conduct experimental investigations based on these concepts. Based on this, they can formulate research hypotheses, gather appropriate data, analyze andpresent them.

MOE-CommEcol: The nature of ecological communities, interactions between vegetation and abiotic / biotic  factors.

MOE-Res_Proj: Conductance of an individual research project connected to a working group at the Institute of Ecology or to an external, national or international laboratory, exemplary work on all steps of a scientific project.

MasThes: Definition of an independent ecological research theme. Planning and discussion of the contents and the time frame of the research work in lab meetings. Realization of the research project: practical preparation, sampling of data, statistical analysis, structuring and writing of the thesis.

Summer term

Elective modules

MOE-InsEco: You will be able to use different field collection techniques to explore the amazing functional diversity of insects.

MOE-LongExc: Excursion with 9 to 14 days duration, to variable destinations. Students link association of organisms to particular ecosystems and the contribution of species to ecosystem functioning.

MOE_FoodWeb You will learn in this course how food webs are structured and function, compare and contrast different food webs, hypothesize how changes in biotic and abiotic factors may affect food webs and Identify the appropriate tools to study specific trophic interactions.

Winter term

Elective modules

MOE-ExpEcol: You will be able to plan, carry out and present your own experimental research from scratch

MOE-GisAppl: General introduction to the concept of Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

MOE-FunctEcol: Which computational sources need to be used to decipher the biogeography of species and their functional traits? We will check different -omic datasets for answers.

MOE-Biodiv: The understanding of basic concepts of biodiversity will make you realize how important the archiving and documentation of biodiversity is. You will be able to reflect on the significance of biodiversity for ecosystem functioning and in a societal context.

MOE-BaT: Student assistance in a practical course of the 1st study year.

Mobility through electives and block courses

Exemplary timing of the Master modules

A great variety of options

  • Choice of courses from other department's master programs (Ecology, Marine Biology or Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), if free slots available.
  • Choice of  General studies of the University of Bremen (e.g. language learning, max. 9 CP).
  • Choice of modules from cooperating universities in Germany or abroad.
  • Choice of joint or specific courses from other European Universities (e.g.YUFE).

(Consultation with the Master's Examination Board required)

The system of blocked modules

We offer block teaching and learning. Block teaching means that individual semester modules are taught in a concentrated manner within a "blocked" period of time and concluded with an examination. By switching to block teaching, the fragmentation of topics and time is reduced. Students can focus entirely on one topic and then take the corresponding exam directly.

But students can not only learn better and more sustainably, they also have the possibility to exchange blocked courses of their study program with blocked courses of other study programs or even other universities.

The schedules of the various master's programs at FB2 are largely synchronized, i.e. courses from different programs may be interchanged.

Downloads

We are there for you

portrait photo Marlis Reich

In my group, we work on marine fungi: we investigate whether individual fungal species have different preferences towards organic material as a food source, and whether they decompose organic material alone or in collaboration with other microbes. We then process this information to understand their role in the marine carbon cycle and assess their ecological relevance.

These questions have general relevance to ecosystem analysis: In my Master of Ecology courses, I show how populations or communities of organisms can be analyzed using molecular methods, which are then linked to information about functionality of individual members to precisely define their role within important processes in an ecosystem. To do this, we use large data sets and bioinformatics tools, among others.

Molecular Ecology

Portrait of Professor Marko Rohlfs

“I am fascinated by insects! Our research group Insect and Chemical Ecology investigates how changes in environmental conditions and species interactions regulate the survival and reproduction of these animals that are so central to maintaining many ecosystem functions."

Please visit the webpage Insect and Chemical Ecology for more details!

Porträtfoto Prof. Christian Wild
Prof. Christian Wild

Our department Marine Ecology pursues an interdisciplinary approach and uses a range of appropriate tools from the fields of ecophysiology, biogeochemistry, and microbiology in order to address the following research areas in Marine Ecology: Ecosystem engineers and other key organism groups; Dynamics of benthic communities and Nutrient cycles and energy transfer.

Examination and admission board

Portrait Martin Diekmann
Chairperson Prof. Martin Diekmann

Chairperson: Prof. Martin Diekmann

  • Prof. Juliane Filser
  • Prof. Marko Rohls
  • Dr. Marlis Reich
  • Emma Zyplik (master student)