The Department of Biology studies life at all levels from molecules to the biosphere to understand the evolution, structure, maintenance and dynamics of biological systems. Our teaching and research provide the integrative and conceptual foundations of the life sciences.

Seminars

Location: 211 Bartram Hall
Time: Tuesdays at 3:30

Tue, Jan 31, 2012
Speaker: Donald Strong
The ecological and evolutionary misadventures of invasive Spartina
Host: Brian Silliman
Thu, Feb 02, 2012
Speaker: John Terborgh
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Host: Scott Robinson
Tue, Feb 07, 2012
Speaker: Roger Arditi
Altering the Standard View on Trophic Ecology
Host: Holt
Tue, Feb 14, 2012
Speaker: Greg Asner
Tropical Conservation Ecology and Capacity Building at the Macroscale
Host: Kitajima
Tue, Feb 21, 2012
Speaker: Steve Pacala
The Fate of the Land Carbon Sink
Host: Lichstein
Archives

News and Events

UF research on newly formed plants could lead to improved crop fertility
A new University of Florida study shows genomes of a recently formed plant species to be highly unstable, a phenomenon that may have far-reaching evolutionary consequences. Published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study is the first to document chromosomal variation in natural populations of a recently formed plant species following whole genome doubling, or polyploidy. Because many agricultural crops are young polyploids, the data may be used to develop plants with higher fertility and yields. Polyploid crops include wheat, corn, coffee, apples, broccoli and some rice species. [more...]

Graduate student Lucas Majure's research featured on msnbc.com
The discovery of the blue sedge in a cemetery in Mississippi four years ago has not revealed all its secrets. This species of grass native from Asia, Australia and New Zealand, may have been introduced unintentionally by people visiting Kelly Mitchell's grave, "the Queen of Gypsies". Read the full story by clicking on "More". [more...]

Associate Professor Ted Schuur receives 1 million dollar grant
Ted Schuur received a one million dollar grant from the Terrestrial Ecosystems Program, Department of Energy for a proposal entitled "Effects of Warming the Deep Soil And Permafrost on Ecosystem Carbon Balance in Alaskan Tundra: A Coupled Measurement and Modeling Approach". This project is aimed at understanding the influence of the Arctic on the pace of global climate change through impacts on the plant and soil processes that control ecosystem carbon cycling. This will done in collaboration with mathematical modeling done with collaborators at Oklahoma University. [more...]

Craig Osenberg receives NSF grant
Professor Craig Osenberg and his colleague Tom Frazer from the department of Fisheries and Aquatic Biology have received an NSF grant to study the interaction between vermitid snails and corals in French Polynesia on the island of Moorea. Vermitids are an unusual group of snails that live embedded in corals. They feed by casting a mucus net over the coral colonies on which they settle and modify its growth. You can read a summary of the proposal by clicking on "More". [more...]

Assistant professor Keith Choe receives NSF grant
Keith Choe has gotten the news that NSF will fund his 5-year grant entitled "A gene regulatory pathway that balances animal survival and proliferation". Congratulations Keith! [more...]