GREEN Graduate Program in Evolutionary Ecology in Aquatic Environments (EEAE)

The master is fully taught in English and is hosted at the College of Sciences and Technologies for Energy and Environment (STEE) of the Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour (UPPA) in Anglet (France).

The STEE College has been founded within the framework of the prestigious French Initiative of Excellence label I-SITE (Initiatives Sciences, Innovation, Territories, and Economy), obtained by our E2S-UPPA project.

Course Organization

The two years training program is composed of 1) a semester of eight courses (30 ECTS) covering evolutionary ecology, population dynamics, behavioral ecology, habitat restoration, space and time series analysis, sampling strategies, research initiation and language (French or Spanish), and 2) a 6-month-long internship (30 ECTS) in a research laboratory. Each course is organized in lectures, tutorial classes, and practical works, and supplemented by online material.

Course Assessment

Each unit of the coursework is evaluated through ongoing and summative assessments. Skills and knowledge are mainly assessed through the writing of synthesis reports based on real-world case studies. The internship will be evaluated through a thesis and an oral defense.

• Evolutionary ecology & management implications (40h): where you browse various key concepts in evolutionary ecology (sexual selection, habitat choice, local adaptation) through their implications for the management of populations or biodiversity
• Demogenetic dynamics in a changing environment (30h): where you model demo-genetic feedback loops to quantify the ability of populations to thrive and adapt in environments that change naturally or because of human-induced alteration.
• Phenotypes facing climate change (24h): where you explore the effect of climate change on thermal adaptation and life-history evolution.
• Eco-evolutionary feedback in aquatic communities (38h): where you merge within-population phenotypic adaptation and community structure to understand how they mutually shape each other.
• Bayesian inference for eco-evolutionary processes (20h): where you model complex ecological datasets in an approach that explicitly untangles biological and observation processes.
• Evolutionary genomics (12h): where you seek traces of diversity in genomic data and interpret them as ecological adaptation
• Journal club and synthesis (30h): where you dive into primary literature (both classic papers and fresh from the lab) and emerge with a synthetic view of evolutionary ecology.

Program Objectives

• Prepare students at an advanced specialized level to meet present and future challenges in the ecology of aquatic environments.
• Develop research skills to engage in quality and successful research on the evolutionary ecology of aquatic systems.
• Prepare students for leading positions in corporate and academic research departments.

Student Learning Outcomes

At the end of this program, the students will be able to:

• Set up relevant experiments and theoretical models to describe the evolution of anthropized aquatic ecosystems.
• Manage and conduct experiments from sampling design to data collection and statistical analysis.
• Analyze, interpret, and synthesize results to present them to scientists, managers, and the general public.

Prospects for employment or further study

Students who completed the program are granted a Master’s degree. They can apply to Ph.D. positions in the evolutionary ecology of aquatic systems, either in a fully academic environment or in interaction with corporate environment consultancy.

Sectors

• Evolutionary ecology,
• Adaptation to global change,
• Biodiversity management,
• Fisheries regulation.

Fields

• Research & development,
• Research

Positions

• Lecturer,
• Researcher,
• Project manager