On the Move in sun moon lake!: Nicole's oral presentation in Taiwan 2026

Nicole Dorville
4 days ago
3 min read

Hi, Nicole here, a PhD Candidate at the TEE Lab. From 20-24 April, I had the opportunity to present the Nature Way biodiversity chapter of my thesis at the Species on the Move Conference (SoTM) at the very lovely Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan on 20 April 2026. SoTM is an international conference that focusses on freshwater, terrestrial and marine landscape ecology and species response to climate change. Forest Ecology friend of the Lab Prof Janice Lee from NTU was one of the organisers, but was unfortunately down with the flu for most of the conference :(.

The location of Sun Moon Lake was a little remote – you had to take a 2h bus ride from Tai Chung to get to one of the main towns (Shuishe). The lake was serene with many herons in the morning, and I always enjoyed the bus ride up the winding road from my hotel to the venue. Some of the more avid birdwatchers and braver conference folks would take the 45 minute walk along the meandering main road and birdwatch along the lake.

(left and right) Lovely views from the area around the hotel;

(centre) fireflies collected by the firefly outreach group from behind the path at the hotel

The conference had many themes of landscape ecology, conservation and environmental policy so it's no wonder that drew wide ranging topics and taxa such as microclimates for butterflies, to migration patterns for whales (but unfortunately no bats!). We also didn't forget about the humans, especially the Thao people indigenous to the Sun Moon Lake area, and various talks interweaving social justice, land rights and environmental policies around the world.

I had a fairly successful presentation on the first day, which left the rest of the conference to go talk hopping, merch shopping and enjoying all the lovely tea break snacks. My favourite talks were:

Extrapolation-oriented species distribution models show climate-sensitive tropical Asian butterflies on the move by one friend-of-the-lab Prof Timothy Bonebrake’s PhD student Eugene Yau: this one had several relevant and funny memes and won the best student talk
Species turnover, not adaptation, drives butterfly response to climate change by Dr. Esme Ashe-Jepson: this one was done in a story format and was very engaging
New species descriptions from cities highlight the value of biosystematic expertise in nature conservation and sustainable urban planning by Dr. Albert Damaška: this one grabbed the audience with a funny hook and just showcased how important the "naming of things" is helpful in science communication and citizen science

(left) Eugene Yau memeing his presentating; (middle) Dr. Albert Damaška showing how gettin both scientists and citizen scientists to name animals help move research along; (right)Dr Esme Ashe-Jepson showing me her card after a lovely conversation

In the middle of the conference we got to have a break, and went on a conference excursion to hike around Yu Shan (Jade mountain) for half a day. I had the pleasure to hang out with the Repro Evo and the Ecol Adapt Labs from NUS, and we chose the “easy” route so that we could take our time, birdwatch, and enjoy the cool mountain air. It paid off as we got to see a male Mikado Pheasant in all his splendour!

From top, clockwise towards the centre: bracket fungi, Yushan map with cute logs carved into pigs/boars (mascots of the regions), mountain view, nice cobblestone road, Taiwan coal finch, Mikado Pheasant, Rose finch, big cool tree, TEE + Repro Evo + Ecol Adapt labs in the wild :)

At the end of the conference there was a wonderful gala dinner, where a Thao performing arts group put on several performances, with the youths dancing while the adults played various instruments. They even had some instruments on stage for the conference participants to try, and a mass dance for more audience participation later on. Leo Tan from the Repro Evo Lab and Janine Soh from the Ecol Adapt labs also won awards for their posters on speciation and fireflies (respectively)!

(left and right) The Thao performance group getting some audience participation during the dinner, (centre) the gala menu

After the conference I had some time before my flight so I spent most of it in TaiChung, with my favourite part being the TaiChung National History museum.