Research Overview
- We investigate the effect of changing environments on insect and aquatic communities
- We use field and laboratory experiments, syntheses of published literature, and natural history collections to investigate ecological and evolutionary responses to climate and habitat change
- Our work is grounded in ecological and evolutionary theory and we tackle both basic and applied questions
Research Team
Research Themes
Plankton & Freshwater Ecosystems
Insect Communities
Rapid adaptation to warming
- Warming and nutrient availability in aquatic ecosystems
- Microplastics, warming, and aquatic ecosystem heath
- Arctic zooplankton responses to climate change
Insect Communities
- Warming, fitness, and flight performance in butterflies
- Adaptive significance of small bodies in warm environments
- Geographic variation in trends in insect diversity and abundance
- Insect phenotypes and communities in urban environments
- Insect conservation in urban environments
Rapid adaptation to warming
- Mechanisms of adaptation of phytoplankton, zooplankton, and insects to warming
- Trophic significance of rapid phytoplankton evolution to warming
Select Publications
Google Scholar Profile: link
* denotes undergraduate coauthors, please email for pdf requests
* denotes undergraduate coauthors, please email for pdf requests
- Tseng, M., C. M. Di Filippo, M. Fung*, J.O. Kim*, I.P. Forster, and Y. Zhou*. 2021 Cascading effects of warming in a freshwater community. Functional Ecology. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.13752. pdf
- Bartlett, B., J. Fortin, M. B. Kantar, M. Tseng, and Z. Mehrabi. 2021. Digital technology helps remove gender bias in academia. Scientometrics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-03911-4. pdf
- 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., R. El-Sabaawi, M. B. Kantar, J. H. Pantel, D. S. Srivastava, and J. Ware. 2020. Strategies and support for Black, Indigenous, and people of colour in ecology and evolutionary biology. Nature Ecology & Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1252-0, https://rdcu.be/b5tDc
- Tseng, M., E. Yangel*, and A. Zhou*. 2019. Herbivory alters thermal responses of algae. Journal of Plankton Research. 41(5): 641-649
- Tseng, M., J. Bernhardt, and A. Chila*. 2019. Species interactions mediate thermal evolution. Evolutionary Applications https://doi.org/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. 44: 151-156. DOI: 10.1111/een.12684. *Biol448 paper, undergraduate co-author.
- 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). Press coverage of this paper: Quirks and Quarks; Science; CBC; Phys.org
- Tseng M., and M. I. O’Connor. 2015. Predators modify the evolutionary response of prey to temperature change. Biology Letters. 11: 20150798. (sup mat), Press: UBC news, Global BC
Teaching
BIOL230 - Fundamentals of Ecology
BIOL411 - Insect Ecology
Teaching Philosophy: Teaching at a large university is a privilege. I'm grateful for the opportunity to interact with hundreds of amazing and talented undergraduates each year. UBC undergrads are phenomenal people with diverse backgrounds, cultures, and lived experiences. I hope they learn from me as much as I learn from them. My goal as an instructor is to provide students with the knowledge and tools needed to be critical thinkers in university and in post-graduate life. I bridge classical examples with cutting-edge research findings. I am committed to a knowledgeable, flexible, inclusive, and fair classroom. I teach fundamental concepts, and apply these concepts to real-world situations. I am an advocate of hands-on research at all levels of undergraduate education.
BIOL411 - Insect Ecology
Teaching Philosophy: Teaching at a large university is a privilege. I'm grateful for the opportunity to interact with hundreds of amazing and talented undergraduates each year. UBC undergrads are phenomenal people with diverse backgrounds, cultures, and lived experiences. I hope they learn from me as much as I learn from them. My goal as an instructor is to provide students with the knowledge and tools needed to be critical thinkers in university and in post-graduate life. I bridge classical examples with cutting-edge research findings. I am committed to a knowledgeable, flexible, inclusive, and fair classroom. I teach fundamental concepts, and apply these concepts to real-world situations. I am an advocate of hands-on research at all levels of undergraduate education.
Land Acknowledgement: The Tseng Lab acknowledges that we are learning and discovering on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam people.
Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: The Tseng lab is a safe, supportive, and welcoming space for people of all races and ethnicities, for LGBTQIA+, and for all underrepresented minorities in science and society. Hate, bigotry, discrimination, and racism of any kind are not tolerated. We acknowledge our own privilege as we strive for a thriving, diverse, and productive lab group.
Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: The Tseng lab is a safe, supportive, and welcoming space for people of all races and ethnicities, for LGBTQIA+, and for all underrepresented minorities in science and society. Hate, bigotry, discrimination, and racism of any kind are not tolerated. We acknowledge our own privilege as we strive for a thriving, diverse, and productive lab group.
