Department of Ecology of Northeast Normal University (NENU) was pioneered by Prof. FU Dongsheng, Prof. ZHU Tingcheng, and Prof. JIN Lan . Up to now, the department has been more than 60 years of development history. In 1977, the research station of Ecology was established under the leadership of Prof. JIN Lan. The course of Ecology was established and began to recruit undergraduate students nationwide in 1978 and 1994, respectively. At that time, Ecology was the only one major in the country built under the background of the Department of Environmental Science. In 2002, the discipline of Ecology was approved as a national key discipline. In 2012, it was awarded the national first-level discipline for doctoral program. In 2013, it was approved as the National Ecological Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center during the “12th Five-Year Plan”.

After decades of rapid development, the Ecology discipline of NENU has become an ecological talent cultivation base with rich accumulation, distinctive characteristics, and strong influence at home and abroad. The department mainly plans to culture the students with basic knowledge of life sciences and environmental sciences that meets the needs of national construction, master the basic theory of ecology, research methods, experimental skills, and have the ability to use computer and other advanced technique to process information; make it a habit to concern the ecological environmental problems faced by country, region and all human beings; to engage in research, teaching and management works related to Ecology during the construction of national ecological civilization.

The department offers professional core courses of Introduction to Ecology, Population and Community Ecology, Environmental Science, Landscape Ecology, Ecotoxicology, Evolutionary Biology, Molecular Ecology, Animal Ecology, Environmental Microbiology, Ecological Monitoring and Evaluation, Ecological Engineering, Urban Ecology, Ecological Economics, and Conservation Biology. Graduates are mainly engaged in scientific research, teaching, and management works related to ecological environment, and/or further study for master's degree in Ecology.