What is the difference between zoologists, botanists, and ecologists?
Zoologists study the biology of animals- anatomy, physiology, evolution, genetics, etc. Botanists study the biology of plants – anatomy, physiology, evolution, genetics, etc. (not just anatomy!) Ecologists study the interrelationships between organisms and their environment (not just the environment–that would be the job of an environmental scientist). All major state universities and large, well known private universities are good. A marine biologist could be a zoologist or an ecologist (but realize many zoologists are ecologists) but there is little for a botanist to do in the ocean (plankton and seaweeds are not plants!). Realize there are additional fields of biology – phycology (study of algae) and microbiology (study of bacteria mainly) are just two examples. Almost any type of biologist could study marine organisms (but botanists would not have much to do!
