Key Information
- Duration: Full-time, 60 months
- Start date: September 2027
- Application deadline: Before December 2026
- Language: English
Overview
Biological oceanography research is conducted on spatial and temporal scales ranging from short-term interactions between individual organisms (mm., sec.) to interdecadal variation in widely dispersed populations.
The techniques used are diverse, and even within one space/time domain can include field observations, experimentation in the laboratory, and mathematical modeling. The Biological Oceanography program is offered by the University of California, San Diego.
Research topics include:
- Primary and secondary productivity and nutrient regeneration
- Community ecology of benthic and pelagic organisms
- Food web structure and trophic ecology
- Population dynamics, habitat changes and disruptions
- Nonequilibrium ecosystems
- Microbial ecology and biogeochemical cycling
- Fishery biology and management
- Marine mammal ecology and communication
- Systematics and biogeography
- Population genetics and evolution
- Behavior as it affects distributions and food web interactions
- Climate change impacts including warming, ocean acidification and deoxygenation
Programme Structure
Courses include:
- Physical Oceanography
- Marine Chemistry
- Biological Oceanography
- Pelagic Ecology
- Fisheries Oceanography
Admission Requirements
Academic requirements
We are not aware of any specific GRE, GMAT or GPA grading score requirements for this programme.
English requirements
- TOEFL iBT: 85
- PTE Academic: 65
- IELTS: 7
General requirements
- Candidates for admission should have a bachelor's (BS) or master's degree in one of the physical, biological, or earth sciences; in some cases a degree in mathematics or engineering science is accepted.
- A scholastic average of B or better (3.0) in upper-division courses, or prior graduate study, is required.
- Two years of chemistry, including general and organic chemistry, and a year of general biology are required. Physical chemistry requiring calculus may be substituted for physics requiring calculus where a more elementary physics course was taken.
- Preparation should also include a course in general geology and at least one course in each of the following categories: systematics (e.g., invertebrate zoology), population biology (e.g., ecology), functional biology (e.g., physiology).
- In special cases, other advanced courses in mathematics or natural sciences may be substituted.
