I'm Charmaine Ng, a Year 1 student at ASE. From June to July 2026, I had the opportunity to join the TEE Lab and work on my project titled "Effects of Habitat Disturbance on Mammal Diversity and Community Composition in Sabah, Borneo". My project is about analysing mammal camera trap data to find out how mammal species richness, species diversity, and community composition differs across a disturbance gradient of Sabah forests. It is part of the Stability of Altered Forest Ec

Saproxylic insects, insects dependent on dying or dead wood for survival, are very important in performing various ecosystem functions and services. Saproxylic insects range from Stag Beetle larvae that feed on decaying deadwood, to social parasites that live with ants nesting in deadwood. Other than carrying out nutrient cycling as they decompose deadwood, some saproxylic insects are pollinators (e.g. flower chafers and some longhorn beetles), and some are important food sou

Hi, I’m Shannon, a Year 1 student studying Environmental Earth System Science at ASE. From June to July 2026, I had the opportunity to take part in the Summer Research programme, where I had my first foray into environmental science research. This is me with my friends at the TEE lab! My project was about investigating the composition of below-ground invertebrate communities in different plot types around Central Catchment Nature Reserve. Soil samples were extracted from diff

Species interact with each other through complex ecological networks. The structure of these networks can be altered by anthropogenic drivers, such as agricultural expansion and climate change, which may impact ecosystem functioning. Increasingly, molecular techniques are being used to monitor biodiversity and construct ecological networks, circumventing the constraints associated with using conventional means to document species interactions over time and space. Field survey

From 3-5 June 2026, our research fellow, Dr Ong Xin Rui, participated in the 6th Conservation Asia Congress (CAC Nepal 2026) that was held in the bustling city of Kathmandau, Nepal. As part of the Asian chapter of the Society of Conservation Biology (SCB), this year's congress is considered a homecoming, where the first SCB Asia regional conference was held in the same venue more than two decades ago. Under the theme “Harmonising Biodiversity and Human Well-being in Asia,” th

Large mammalian herbivores are important keystone species that are increasingly threatened by hunting and global environmental change. Their loss can trigger cascading impacts on other organisms that rely on them, including dung beetles—ecologically important insects rely on the feces of larger animals for feeding and nesting. By processing and burying dung, dung beetles also contribute towards multiple ecosystem services, including nutrient recycling and seed dispersal. Scie

Insects are responding rapidly to global environmental change, yet understanding why insect populations change remains one of the greatest challenges in ecology and conservation. While monitoring efforts increasingly reveal shifts in insect abundance, diversity, biomass, and distributions, observed patterns are often shaped by multiple interacting drivers, biological mechanisms, and even the way insects are detected and measured. In our new paper, Predictive entomology: A c

On 6 May 2026, we conducted a focused mini workshop with local communities in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah to gather input on the Riparian Decision Tree (RiTREE), a planning tool designed to guide decisions on riparian buffer widths. This session marked an important step in ensuring that community perspectives are meaningfully integrated into the tool. Between 2016 and 2021, a series of meetings, multi-stakeholder workshops, and collaborative discussions brought together scientists,

The Tropical Ecology and Entomology (TEE) Lab at the Asian School of the Environment, College of Science, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, was recently featured on Channel News Asia (CNA) for its work on the AMBER Project — AI and Automated Monitoring of Insects (AMI) — showcasing how artificial intelligence is being integrated into biodiversity monitoring in Singapore. Developed through a collaboration between the Alan Turing Institute , the UK Centre

Our recent study, Towards red listing understudied tropical insects: A case study of the dung beetles of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo , has been featured in East Malaysia's daily newspaper, The Borneo Post ! We thank Dr Arthur Chung and Datuk Frederick Kugan for the opportunity to contribute this article in collaboration with the Sabah Forestry Department. Check out the article and our publication in these links: Study puts Sabah’s dung beetles on the global con­ser­va­tion map To

The IUCN Red List is the most authoritative source of the extinction risk of species and is widely used to inform conservation actions. However, tropical insects are very much under-represented in the Red List due to multiple reasons: limited data on species distributions and trends, difficulties in applying the Red List Criteria, lack of coordination between tropical entomologists and the IUCN structures responsible for publishing official assessments. In our latest publica

In January 2026, the TEE Lab spent an amazing and fruitful two weeks at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, Netherlands and the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN) in Paris, France. Marx, Xin Rui, Zann & Eleanor at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center and the MNHN. Photos 2026 Marx. The Naturalis Biodiversity Center is home to over 40 million specimens from all over the world, including many important specimens from Southeast Asia. Here, we were hosted by Dr

During our second trip to Japan this year, the TEE Lab visited the collections at the National Museum of Nature and Science , which is situated in the Science City of Tsukuba. Hosted by Dr Showtaro Kakizoe, we spent two fulfilling days examining and imaging dung beetle specimens held in the museum's collections. Group photo with Dr Showtaro Kakizoe and Hiroshima University PhD student Aiman Aiman Luhkman. These important collections help us to verify species identifications a

The TEE Lab is welcomed our collaborators from Hiroshima University back to Singapore for the second time this year on 2-3 Nov 2025! Highlights included a GBIF data-sharing session by our Project Officer Marx Yim, a presentation by Aiman on his 10-day training in the lab, and of course, a feast of Indonesian food as a welcome dinner. A short but meaningful visit filled with learning, discussion, and collaboration. Looking forward to more in 2026!

The Tropical Ecology & Entomology Lab (TEE Lab), Asian School of Environment (ASE), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) recently had the privilege of participating in the official opening of the new Sustainability Gallery at Gardens by the Bay. We were honoured to showcase our work to distinguished guests, including President of the Republic of Singapore, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Kikkoman Corporation honorary CEO, chairman of board of directors Yuzaburo Mogi , and the dedi

Tropical forests are highly diverse and are of significant conservation value. Yet, the continuing disturbance of these habitats, coupled with the effects of climate change, has profound impacts on microclimates and tropical forest organisms. In this study published in iScience , the authors investigated the microclimatic buffering capacity at the scale of functionally important invertebrates along a gradient of forest disturbance (quantified by canopy cover) in the Stability

Group photo with Dr. Teruo Ochi, Dr. Masahiro Kon, Dr. Tetsuro Hosaka, Dr. Showtaro Kakizoe, and Dr. Tomohiro Watazu. Photo 2025, Chiew...

We are proud to share that recent research from the Tropical Ecology and Entomology Lab (TEE Lab) at the Asian School of the Environment...

We are delighted to share that our recent study on butterfly biodiversity in Singapore’s urban environment has been featured by NTU...

The TEE Lab is featured in the Merdeka Daily News, local Sandakan paper. Photo 2025, Arthur Chung The TEE Lab returned to the rainforests...