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​Graduate students from all universities in Israel and abroad can work at the MDDE, supervised by its staff, and use its research sites and facilities. A graduate-level program in Ecology is given in the Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies (MSc degree in Desert Studies with specialization in Ecology) and at the undergraduate level in departments on the main campus of BGU. During the academic year, the MDDE holds weekly ecology and graduate student seminars. All academic activities in the MDDE are in English.

 
Current​​ ​MDDE students
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​Ecology of Drylands Studies

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​Master's Degree in Ecology, Conservation, and Management

​Research at the Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology MDDE spans the spectrum of biological organization, including the genetic, physiological, behavioral, population, community, and landscape ecology of desert plants and wildlife. A broad range of animals competing for limited resources are under study, among them, spiders, insects, birds, lizards, ungulates, rodents, bats, onagers, and other mammals. Cutting-edge research ranges from promoting the reintroduction of extirpated fauna and flora to the Negev Desert to studying the physiological basis of ecological interactions to viewing species interactions as foraging games.  These advances in ecological understanding serve as tools for conserving biodiversity, developing better understanding, and managing ecosystems of all types.​

 

A wide variety of research projects are available to graduate students for thesis work:

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Guidelines and Course Lists ▶

Faculty and Research Interests ▶

Student Duties ▶

Deadlines ▶

In the face of the biodiversity crisis and the threat to ecological systems and the services they provide, our new program in Ecology, Conservation, and Management aims at creating a new generation of scientists, experts, and field workers with a broad knowledge in the field of applicative ecology, conservation biology, and evolutionary ecology.

 

The program provides the students with a theoretical background in ecology and evolution, with emphasis on biodiversity, community dynamics, and organism-level processes combined with methodological knowledge, including statistics, mathematics, model developing, and assessment procedures specific to nature conservation and management.

 

The program offers a Magister in Science (M.Sc.) degree based on research thesis in one of two study tracks that overlap in their thematic background but emphasize different aspects of ecology: - Evolutionary Ecology (E)

- Nature Conservation and Management (N)