Ecology is the scientific study of the processes influencing the distribution and abundance of organisms, the interactions among organisms, and the interactions between organisms and the transformation and flux of energy and matter.

This brief definition describes the focus of virtually all the research done at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. Defying the modern trend toward increasingly narrow specialization in scientific disciplines, the Institute attracts individuals with a broad perspective, those who keep one eye on the larger landscape even as they seek to understand specific processes. The Institute's assemblage of trained ecologists - there are more than two dozen Ph.D.-level scientists on staff at any given time - creates a culture of inquiry through active collaboration that unravels the extraordinary complexity of ecosystem processes more readily and comprehensively than individual efforts.

The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, with fine laboratory, library and residential facilities, welcomes scientists on university sabbaticals as well as post-doctoral trainees who are starting their careers. There are up to fifty master's and doctoral degree students in the Institute's program at any given time, and each summer the staff list swells with an influx of undergraduate students doing independent research.