This directorate deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.

1) Department of Terrestrial Ecology for Environmental Sustainability

This department specifies the relations of organisms and their physical environment on land. It goes further to categorize terrestrial biomes and terrestrial ecosystems

 2) Department of Aquatic Ecology Environmental Sustainability

This department concentrates more on the relationships in all aquatic environments, including oceans, estuaries, lakes, ponds, wetlands, rivers, and streams.

 3) Department of Microbial Ecology for Environmental Sustainability

This department explores the diversity, distribution, and abundance of microorganisms, their specific interactions, and the effect that they have on ecosystems

 4) Department of Systems Ecology for Environmental Sustainability

This department approaches ecosystem based on formal procedures of systems thinking, synthesis, and modeling. Its goals are those of ecosystem ecology in general: develop and test theory of ecosystem organization; detect and manage emergent properties; and predict responses to disturbance.

 5) Department of Taxonomic Ecology for Environmental Sustainability

This department looks at how taxonomy is intimately related to ecology which, in turn, cannot be a mere exercise in describing ecological patterns, but instead requires deep knowledge of species’ biological structures, roles, interactions and functions.

 6) Department of Evolutionary Ecology for Environmental Sustainability

This department concerns itself with both ecology and evolution and then examines how interactions between and within species evolve. It explicitly considers the evolutionary effects of competitors, mutualists, predators, prey and pathogens.

 7) Department of Population Ecology for Environmental Sustainability

This department deals with a sub-field of ecology that deals with the dynamics of species populations and how these populations interact with the environment, such as birth and death rates, and by immigration and emigration. It studies the number of individuals in an area, as well as how and why their population size changes over time

 8) Department of Behavioral Ecology for Environmental Sustainability

This department focuses on how the behavior of animals affects their ability to survive and reproduce. A major focus of the field of behavioral ecology is how efficiently animals use their time and energy in obtaining resources that enhance survival and reproduction.

 9) Department of Conservation Ecology for Environmental Sustainability

This department deals with the preservation and management of biodiversity and natural resources. It is a discipline that is emerging rapidly as a result of the accelerating deterioration of natural systems and the worldwide epidemic of species extinctions.

 10) Department of Applied Ecology for Environmental Sustainability

This department considers the application of the science of ecology to real-world questions. It  focuses on the application of concepts, theories, models, or methods of fundamental ecology to environmental problems

 11) Department of Global Ecology for Environmental Sustainability

This department involves itself with the science of the Earth ecosystem. It aims at the entirety of life (animals, plants, microbes) and life-support systems (air, water, and soil) on the Earth, variously referred to as the biosphere, the ecosphere, the global ecosystem, Gaia, and the Earth system.

 12) Department of Landscape Ecology for Environmental Sustainability

This department deals with studying and improving relationships between ecological processes in the environment and particular ecosystems. This is done within a variety of landscape scales, development spatial patterns, and organizational levels of research and policy.

 13) Department of Community Ecology for Environmental Sustainability

This department investigates the factors that influence biodiversity, community structure, and the distribution and abundance of species. These factors include interactions with the abiotic world and the diverse array of interactions that occur between species.

 14) Department of Organism Ecology for Environmental Sustainability

This department focuses on the morphological, physiological, and behavioral adaptations that let an organism survive in a specific habitat.

 15) Department of Molecular Ecology for Environmental Sustainability

This department uses molecular genetics tools to study ecological questions. Techniques such as microarrays and DNA markers are used to study the interactions and diversity of natural populations.