Research Faculty #33
General Information
Research Associate 2014-2016, UBC
Founding and Managing Editor, Evolutionary Applications, 2007-2013
Postdoctoral Fellow 2006-2008, UBC
Ph.D. 2005, Indiana University, USA
Tseng Lab website: https://www.bugsandplankton.com/
Contact Information
Research Information
Aquatic and Insect Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
The Tseng lab aims to understand and predict the responses of aquatic and insect communities to warming. Our work is grounded in ecological and evolutionary theory. We use field and laboratory experiments, syntheses of published data, and physical and online natural history collections to address the following questions:
- How does temperature warming affect community-level nutrient availability, biomass, productivity, and adaptation?
- How do aquatic communities 'adapt' to warming? What is the relative importance of evolutionary adaptation vs. species turnover?
- What is the ecological significance of warming-induced reductions in insect body size?
- How has insect species richness changed over time?
- How and how quickly do organisms evolve in response to warming?
Erez Büyükyilmaz - Honours thesis student
Jihyun Kim - MSc Student (Botany)
Natasha Klasios - MSc Student (Zoology)
Markus Thormeyer - Undergraduate research assistant
I am recruiting MSc and PhD students to start in Sept 2021. Please contact me if you are interested!
Recent graduates: Carla Di Filippo (MSc Botany); Chris Ernst (Hakai Postdoc); Undergraduates: Madeline Fung, Emily Liang, Jane Yangel, Alice Zhou
Selected Publications
*denotes undergraduate co-authors
El-Sabaawi, R., M.B. Kantar, T. Moore, J.H. Pantel, M. Tseng, J. Ware. 2020. The EEB POC Project. Limnology and Oceanography Bulletin 29(3) 97-99
Tseng, M., RW. El-Sabaawi, M.B. Kantar, J.H. Pantel, D.S. Srivastava, J.L. Ware. 2020. Strategies and support for Black, Indigenous, and people of colour in ecology and evolutionary biology. Nature Ecology & Evolution 4(10)1288-1290.
Tseng, M. E. Yangel*, and A. Zhou*. 2019. Herbivory alters thermal responses of algae. Journal of Plankton Research. Accepted.
Tseng, M, J.R. Bernhardt, and A.E. Chila*. 2019. Species interactions mediate thermal evolution. Evolutionary Applications. DOI: 10.1111/eva.12805
Tseng, M. and S. Soleimani Pari*. 2019. Body size explains interspecific variation in latitude-size relationships in geographically widespread beetle species. Ecological Entomology. DOI: 10.1111/een.12684
Tseng, M., K. M. Kaur*, S. Soleimani Pari*, K. Sarai, D. Chan, C.H. Yao, P. Porto, A. Toor, H.S. Toor, and K. Fograscher. 2018. Decreases in beetle body size linked to climate change and warming temperatures. Journal of Animal Ecology. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.12789 *co-second author, (all co-authors were UBC undergrads from Biol411).
Tseng M. 2017. The effect of parasitism and interpopulation hybridization on Aedes albopictus fitness. Journal of Medical Entomology. 54(5):1236-1242
Tseng M., and M. I. O’Connor. 2015. Predators modify the evolutionary response of prey to temperature change. Biology Letters. 11: 20150798