The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (E&EB) has a broad but unified mission in teaching and research: broad in that the interests of the faculty span many levels of organization encompassing genes, genotypes, phenotypes, populations, communities, and ecosystems; and unified in that each of these levels interacts with all of the others. Detailed appreciation of the processes operating at all levels of organization is fundamental to ecological or evolutionary understanding.

Six major areas of scholarship are represented within the Department of E&EB: (1) biogeochemistry and ecosystem science, (2) community ecology, (3) population biology, (4) organismal biology, (5) evolutionary genetics, and (6) macroevolution and systematics. These areas of scholarship are clearly overlapping; indeed we emphasize the linkages among them. Furthermore, in all of these areas, faculty from other departments add considerably to the strength of the program of teaching and research at Cornell.

Corson Hall provides the principal office and research facilities for E&EB faculty and graduate students. The Corson Hall space also includes four aquarium rooms, five animal rooms for housing live vertebrates, a cluster of plant growth chambers, woodworking and machine shops, a computer facility for E&EB students (both graduate and undergraduate), and a multi-user molecular genetics laboratory for DNA sequencing and genotyping. The Department has access to a number of greenhouse modules located on the roof of the building.

Many teaching and research facilities used by the Department are located elsewhere on campus or are off campus. Stimson Hall is the primary facility used for teaching laboratory courses offered by the Department. Courses taught in Stimson include a diversity of offerings in vertebrate biology, human biology/paleontology, invertebrate biology, and limnology. The Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates is made up of four vertebrate collections (birds, mammals, fish, and amphibians and reptiles) and is housed in the Johnson Center, Sapsucker Woods Rd., about three miles north of the main campus. The invertebrate collections are housed at the Paleontological Research Institution, a privately funded institute located just northwest of Ithaca. The Department houses the Cornell University Stable Isotope Laboratory (COIL). COIL is an analytical facility providing services to researchers, students, and federal agencies. COIL utilizes two isotope ratio mass spectrometers (IRMS) for the analysis of stable light isotopes (C, N, H, and O) in varying media and provides sample preparation facilities for both naturally abundant and enriched sample types. This service facility is run in conjunction with the Program in Biogeochemistry and Environmental Biocomplexity. Several members of the E&EB faculty have their primary office and lab space at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Johnson Center, located at Sapsucker Woods about three miles northeast of the main campus.

Members of the Department have access to a number of field research sites. Terrestrial field experiments can be conducted on three parcels of abandoned farmland managed by the Department and at several other locations within the 1600 hectares of fields, forests, and wetlands owned by Cornell University in Tompkins County. Cornell also maintains a 650-hectare system of nature reserves, which preserve bogs, gorges, extensive stands of mature forests, and other special habitats for teaching and biological investigation. Excellent facilities are also available for instruction and research in aquatic ecosystems. These include the Cornell Research Ponds, where replicated field experiments can be carried out.