The Department of Biological Sciences has more than 30 academic and 26 support staff, and trains more than 100 postgraduate, 30 Honours and 500 undergraduate students in fields of terrestrial and marine ecology, evolutionary biology and ecophysiology.
Departmental Units & Institutions
Generous donations boost Biological Sciences’ rebuilding efforts
After devastating losses in the April 2021 fire, the Department of Biological Sciences has received a donation of €1 million (approximately R17 million) from the Hasso Plattner Foundation to assist with its recovery efforts.
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Biological Diversity Day: Peri-urban living a ‘poisoned chalice’ for city’s caracals
Research by PhD graduate Dr Gabriella Leighton and colleagues has shown that organochlorine pollutants along Cape Town’s peri-urban fringes are present in concerningly high concentrations in the body tissue of the city’s caracals.
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Safe havens: Conserving endangered Clanwilliam sandfish, pool by pool
Sarah Fransman remembers when spawning Clanwilliam sandfish arrived in the Biedouw Valley near Clanwilliam. The thousands-strong shoal creating wavelets along the surface of the Biedouw River, fish packed on top of one another.
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Lockdown 2020: Birds bask on barren Muizenberg beach
As humans were ordered to stay indoors to curtail the spread of COVID-19 during the early days of the pandemic in 2020, it appears that birds came out in their numbers to get their dose of vitamin sea.
A research paper titled “
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Fynbos puts the squeeze on trees via the thinnest roots known
Fynbos and Afrotemperate Forest biomes live side by side in the Western Cape, sharing an underlying geology and climatic patterns. Each survives in very different soil, produced by the vegetation.
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UCT joins forces with NASA for biodiversity survey
Regarded as one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet, South Africa’s Greater Cape Floristic Region is set to be the subject of a first-of-its-kind biodiversity survey conducted by NASA. The collaborative campaign, dubbed BioSCape, will see
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MSc opportunity
Stress-related responses of sociable weavers to the presence of pygmy falcons in weaver colonies - supervised by Dr Celiwe Ngcamphalala and A/Prof. Robert Thomson. Closing date for applications: 31/01/2023
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Repeat photos show change in southern African landscapes: a citizen science project
Every place in the world has a history. To understand it in the present you need some knowledge of its past.
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Animal Evolution and Systematics (AES) Research Translated into African Languages
Some of the research of the AES group have been translated into African languages for easier access for people who are native speakers of African languages. It is hoped that this translation project will expand beyond the group.
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