Tropical Ecosystems in a Changing World: My Journey to Borneo with the Regnell’s Scholarship
With the generous support of the AF Regnell Botanical Travel Grant, I had the privilege of spending over a month teaching, sharing research ideas and building professional collaborations in Hong Kong and Malaysian Borneo. The trip was an immense success, contributing to my academic development and strengthening my network Uppsala University Evolutionsmuseet with international leaders in the field of biodiversity science and tropical ecology.
The journey began in Hong Kong, where I spent the first week at the University of Hong Kong in the Biodiversity and Environmental Change Lab. The tropical ecology field course “Tropical Ecosystems in a Changing World” led by Professor Louise Ashton, brought together a diverse teaching team of museum and university experts, who had travelled from the USA, China, Canada, Australia (and Sweden!) to support the field course, creating a stimulating environment for both students and staff. This week was spent listening to lectures and preparing field equipment for the expedition.
From Hong Kong’s concrete jungle, we travelled to the Danum Valley Conservation Area in Sabah, Borneo, one of the world’s most biologically rich rainforests. Field surveys included vegetation/habitat survey comparisons between primary rainforest and oil palm and canopy surveys of lepidoptera. Another experiment used fake caterpillars made of plasticine to measure predation pressure, identifying predators by the distinct marks they left behind—such as punctures from ants and wedge-shaped pecks from birds. All projects reinforced the central role of taxonomy as a foundation for biodiversity science, an important message for students, with the growing taxonomic impediment. We had the fantastic opportunity to visit the Sabah Biodiversity Experiment and the InfaPro Rehabilitation Centre, where we explored how forest restoration can return ecosystem services to degraded landscapes. These visits provided the students with examples of conservation in action and stimulated meaningful reflections on the costs and benefits of restoration ecology, to start thinking about the economics behind what it takes to manage such projects. I delivered a lecture on the importance of natural history collections, such as Evolutionsmuseet, and new technologies such as computer vision for insect identification and biodiversity data collection and mobilisation at scale. Another highlight was sharing the field station with a National Geographic film crew from Disney, who were in Borneo shooting a new documentary about orangutans!
I was warmly invited by Professor Fiffy Saikim, the Director to the Institute of Tropical Biology and Conservation (ITBC), Universiti Malaysia Sabah. I delivered a seminar on Natirual History Collections and the value of tropical biodiversity data for stakeholders and collaboration. We then discussed taxonomy, data management, legal structures for research permits in Sabah, and the use of emerging technologies in biodiversity monitoring. I also met with Madame Petherine Nur (Head of the Borneensis Zoology Collections) and Dr. Homathevi Rahman, the one of very few termite taxonomists in Borneo! I was also lucky enough to meet with Dr Song Quan Ong, an entomology computer vision specialist based also at the University of Malaysia, Sabah. Our exchanges laid a foundation for future research collaboration and biodiversity data collection mobilisation and specimen exchange between ITBC Borneensis Natural History Collections and Uppsala University’s Evolutionsmuseet.
I am sincerely grateful to Professor Louise Ashton for inviting me to contribute towards teaching on an exceptional field course, and to colleagues Dr Mike Boyle, Dr Cheng Wenda, Dr Anna Goldman, Dr Martha Ledger, Professor Caroline Dingle, Professor Tim Bonebrake, Professor Fiffy Saikim, Dr Homathevi Rahman, and Dr Song-Quan Ong for their inspiring discussions and open-minded attitude to collaboration. The enthusiasm and dedication of the students we taught and mentored throughout the course was a constant reminder of why we do this work: for the generations to come.
