About us

The increased pressure on biological natural resources constitutes a global challenge. Sustainable agriculture and forestry require good insight into the ecology of species and how the ecosystem works. At the Department of Ecology, we produce and communicate knowledge that can be used for effective environmental protection and wildlife management, effective protection of plants and sustainable forest and agricultural production.

Some facts about us:

• There are about 140 employees at the department. Please see our staff list.
• You can find us at Grimsö Research Station in the county of Västmanland and in Ultuna, Uppsala.
• Together with the Department of Crop Production Ecology we form the Ecology Centre.
• The Wildlife Damage Centre is part of the department. It is a national centre for information and education about management of protected wildlife, such as large carnivores and large grazing birds.
• Under the same roof you can also find parts of the Unit for Risk Assessment of Alien Plant Pests. They mainly deal with insects.
• We are responsible for six subjects: forest entomology, landscape ecology, insect ecology, conservation biology, soil ecology, wildlife ecology, agricultural entomology and system ecology. Our research units are linked to these subjects.
• The department belongs to two faculties: the Faculty of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences and the Faculty of Forest Sciences.
• In 2016, we published an average of 3.2 scientific publications per researcher. The most common journals were Forest Ecology and Management, Biological Conservation and Ecology and Evolution.
• Our most important funders are the Swedish Energy Agency, Formas, the Swedish Board of Agriculture, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agencyand the Swedish Research Council (annual report 2016).
• We collaborate with forest owners, farmers, hunters, bird watchers, authorities, NGOs, policy makers and many more. We also interact with the general public at different events and in some of our projects.
• We are responsible for 21 courses at Bachelor’s and Master’s level that focus on ecology, biology and environmental sciences.  
• We have several environmental monitoring projects focusing on landscape, wildlife and forest damage.
• Grimsö Wildlife Research Station is part of SITES (Swedish Infrastructure for Ecosystem Science).
• We share an environmental certificate with the Department of Crop Production Ecology, the Swedish Species Information Centre and the Swedish Biodiversity Centre. We also have goals to reduce our negative environmental impact from travel, purchasing and energy consumption. We also want to increase our positive environmental impact by sharing our knowledge on sustainable development and sustainable use of natural resources with society.