TEE Lab at Gardens by the Bay BioBlitz 2026

The Tropical Ecology and Entomology (TEE) Lab from Asian School of the Environment, College of Science, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore recently  joined the BioBlitz at Gardens by the Bay, bringing together field surveys, community engagement, and new technologies to explore and showcase Singapore’s fascinating invertebrate biodiversity.

As part of the BioBlitz, our team led dragonfly and damselfly surveys around the Gardens. Participants joined our survey leads to search for these colourful and charismatic insects while learning about their ecology, identification, and importance as part of Singapore’s freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems.

TEE Lab members leading the dragonfly survey alongside enthusiastic student participants from different colleges during the event. A great opportunity to explore, learn, and document Singapore’s biodiversity together! Photos: TEELab's members (2026).

Observations from the surveys were recorded using iNaturalist, contributing to digital biodiversity records that can be viewed, verified, and shared with the wider community. Beyond simply creating a species list, platforms such as iNaturalist provide an accessible way for members of the public to participate in biodiversity monitoring and contribute observations that can support our understanding of where species occur.

Our PhD student, Nicole, presented a summary of the dragonfly records collected during the survey. Photo: TEE Lab's member (2026).

Alongside the surveys, TEE Lab also set up an outreach booth showcasing some of the invertebrate research we are conducting in Singapore. Visitors had the opportunity to learn about the diversity of insects around us, why monitoring these often-overlooked organisms matters, and some of the approaches we use to study them.

One of the projects we highlighted was the AMBER project—AI-assisted Monitoring of Biodiversity using Edge-processing and Remote Sensors, developed through a collaboration between the Alan Turing Institute, the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), and the Aberdeen Charitable Foundation.. We were also excited to showcase the LepiSense, a new generation of automated insect monitoring technology developed by our partners at the UKCEH. It is designed to autonomously record insects throughout the night. Its portability also opens up exciting possibilities for deploying automated monitoring across a wider range of habitats and locations.

TEE Lab members engaging with curious visitors at our outreach booth, sharing our work on insect biodiversity and introducing LepiSense—an automated monitoring system that helps us record and study moths and other nocturnal insects throughout the night. Photos: TEE Lab's members, (2026).

A big thank you to Gardens by the Bay, our volunteers, survey participants, collaborators, and everyone who stopped by our booth to ask questions and discover more about the fascinating world of insects.