The Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior (previously The Department of Evolution, Systematics & Ecology) aims at promoting modern research and teaching in the fields of ecology, evolutionary biology and animal behavior. The department is organized around two unifying research themes. The first involves the processes that underlie the evolution of various biological entities and phenomena ranging from the genetic code, genes and molecules, through body form, to behavior and social interactions. The second involves interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment, and studies how these interactions shape the evolution, abundance and distribution of organisms, and the structure and dynamics of populations, communities, ecosystems and the whole biosphere.
Research carried out in the department covers a wide spectrum of fields including micro- and macro-evolution, evolutionary developmental biology, molecular evolution, mechanisms and evolution of animal behavior, sociobiology, population and community ecology, landscape and movement ecology, ecosystems, marine biology, conservation biology, biodiversity, global environmental changes and biogeography. Most research fields combine theoretical and experimental approaches, and studies are conducted in terrestrial, aerial and marine environments, on both animals and plants.
The department’s laboratories are equipped with advanced technologies for molecular and physiological analyses, field studies, animal monitoring in the field and in the lab, experimental studies of animal behavior, geographical information systems, and remote sensing.
The department houses the Geoinformatics Technology Center of the Hebrew University and the Israeli National Natural History Collections at the Hebrew University, and plays a leading role in research and teaching carried out in the Heinz Steinitz Marine Biology Laboratory in Eilat.