Systematic biology

The mission of systematic biology is the discovery, description and classification of biodiversity at all taxon levels and the investigation of forces that shape biodiversity. Our current research methodology ranges from traditional field (including museum specimens) and morphological study to newer ultra-structural and molecular methods such as metagenomics, single-cell genomics, DNA barcoding, eDNA metabarcoding, genome sequencing and FISH microscopy.

The importance of systematic biology is enhanced by the rapid rate of biodiversity loss together with an accelerating rate of new species discovery, including both macro- and micro-organisms. This requires, among other things, the development of high throughput methods for species delimitation and data archiving.

The teaching mandate of the systematic biology program at Uppsala is very broad, including plants, animals, fungi and microbial eukaryotes ("protists"), much of it at the undergraduate level. Teaching commitments further include BSc and MSc-level training in phylogenetics and bioinformatics. We are also part of the NABIS network for distributed teaching of systematics in the Nordic countries.