Graduate Degree Program in Ecology (original) (raw)

Opportunities across disciplines

Our curriculum is rigorous and comprehensive--our students emerge from the program as highly competent and skilled graduates.

Room to grow

The GDPE curriculum is designed to provide a breadth and depth of training to MS and PhD students, who will emerge from the program as highly competent and skilled graduates.

Previous slide

Next slide

About the Ecology Program

The mission of the Ecology program is to provide the highest quality education in ecology through advanced training in current ecological methods, theories, controversies, applications, and teaching methods by drawing on the great depth and breadth of ecological expertise at Colorado State University and in our local community of scientists. We follow CSU’s Principles of Community in our work, which focus on inclusion, integrity, respect, service, and social justice.

Recent Highlights

The Ecological Society of America recently presented the prestigious George Mercer Award to Megan Vahsen, a former GDPE student in Ruth Hufbauer’s research group who is now a postdoctoral fellow at Utah State University. The award is presented annually for an outstanding ecological research paper published by an early-career lead author. Vahsen and her co-authors received the award for a paper published in Science, titled “Rapid plant trait evolution can alter coastal wetland resilience to sea level rise”.

Six GDPE students were selected as 2024-2025 Sustainability Leadership Fellows for the School of Global Environmental Sustainability (SoGES). This fellowship program provides science communication training and other professional development opportunities for 20 advanced PhD students and postdoctoral scholars each year. Congratulations to Katherin Meza, Erin Jackson, Kathy Condon, Elizabeth Diaz-Clark, Kord Dicke, and Mikko Jimenez!

Laura Lukens, a PhD student in the Mola Lab, was recently awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. This award ‘recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who have demonstrated the potential to be high-achieving scientists, early in their careers’. Laura studies how anthropogenic change influences population dynamics and species interactions, with a focus on endangered species conservation. Congratulations, Laura!

CSU Ecologists in the News

PhD student, Matt Sturchio, was interviewed for a recent story in The Colorado Sun on the benefits of agrivoltaic installations. In the article, Matt shares that increased biodiversity and drought resilience is a win for Coloradan landowners. Photovoltaic panels, like those at Jack’s Solar Garden where Matt conducts his research, could also be useful in grasslands and pastures to provide shade for plants and livestock.

PhD student, Forest Hayes, and advisor Dr. Joel Berger, have found that climate change may be contributing to increased hostility between different species over limited resources. For example, the melting of glaciers in Glacier National Park is exposing previously buried salt-licks, which leads to conflict between Mountain Goats and Big-Horn Sheep. They found that goats almost always win. Sorry, Cam!

The research lab of Dr. Melinda Smith (Ecology, Biology) leads a study that combines field experiments and computer modeling to assess how co-occurring droughts and deluges will impact carbon cycling across the vast grasslands of the continental U.S. This project is operating on a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Recent publication highlights from students and faculty

Nature (February 2024)

In this Nature study, GDPE faculty member Anping Chen and his team ask to what extent the observed severe pulses of tree mortality induced by climate could affect overall vegetation greenness across spatial grains and temporal extents. The findings underscore the fundamental importance of spatio-temporal scales for cohesively understanding the effects of climate change on forest productivity and tree mortality under both gradual and abrupt changes.

Rangelands (June 2024)

In this study, GDPE faculty member Stacy Lynn and her team examined how stakeholder values in specific collaborative contexts can aid in solution-focused approaches by minimizing tradeoffs, improving group cohesion, and enhancing partnership success as rangeland managers work to align strategies with the needs of both landscapes and people. Using a mixed-methods approach, Dr. Lynn’s team explored pluralistic, sociocultural values and perspectives of diverse stakeholders prioritization of rangeland ecosystem services, and how this prioritization is a reflection of unique yet overlapping values systems.

Plants, People, Planet (July 2024)

In this study, Matt Sturchio (GDPE PhD Grad) and Alan Knapp (GDPE Senior Ecologist) evaluated the impact of photovoltaic solar array microenvironments on plant ecophysiological responses. While light-saturated photosynthetic rates were consistent regardless of microsite shading, vapor pressure deficits were better predictors of plant water relations and biomass production than soil moisture. These findings can inform the management of future solar arrays to enhance ecosystem services.

The purpose of a degree committee is to make available to the student a broad range of knowledge and expertise. The committee provides general advising to the student and assists in planning the major elements of the academic program. The committee also evaluates student progress throughout the graduate program. The committee may provide assessments at various stages and it administers the PhD preliminary and MS/PhD final examinations. The committee is not responsible for reminding students of published deadlines, nor for monitoring procedural details. The student needs to work with GDPE and their advisor and monitor Graduate School deadlines.

Students should begin discussing the formation of their graduate committee as early as possible. Formal selection of the graduate committee must occur before the student registers for their fourth regular semester, or the student will be prevented from registering by the Graduate School.

Along with the GDPE and advisor guidance, the following are specifically required of GDPE graduate Committees:

• The primary advisor must be a member of the GDPE advising faculty and have advising privileges in a CSU academic department. Criteria for advising eligibility may vary among departments.
• Co-advisors must also be GDPE faculty members.
• All members of the committee must maintain a current appointment with CSU in order to serve as a voting member of the committee. Scientists without an appointment at CSU may contribute to a committee but are not allowed to be voting members.
• The GDPE Director serves as an ex officio member of all graduate committees.
• Graduate committees for MS students in GDPE consist of at least three members, two of whom must be on the GDPE faculty. Graduate committees of PhD students will have at least one additional GDPE faculty member, making a total of four faculty members on a PhD committee.
• The outside committee person may or may not be a member of the GDPE faculty but must be from outside the department of the major advisor. The outside committee member represents the Graduate School, ensuring that CSU’s expectations are met and that the student’s needs are being met by GDPE. For these reasons, the outside member may not hold an affiliate or temporary appointment only. If the primary advisor holds a joint appointment in two departments, the outside member must represent a third department.
• The student, major advisor, and other committee members collaborate to develop a program of study (logistically, this entails agreeing upon coursework and submitting a GS6 form) and together are responsible for monitoring the progress toward completion. Each graduate committee is also responsible for determining whether satisfactory progress is being made toward completion of the degree according to CSU and GDPE requirements.
• GDPE students often would like scientists without a CSU appointment to be on their committees. Students should work with their advisor to gain affiliate status for the scientist in their advising department. Once the scientist has affiliate status in an advising department, they may apply for GDPE faculty affiliate status (http://www.ecology.colostate.edu/faculty-affiliation.aspx), which will allow them to serve on committees. Such applications must be approved by the GDPE Executive Committee, which meets approximately monthly during the academic year.

If you have questions about committee composition, contact the GDPE Assistant Director or the advisor.