Research Faculty #33

General Information

Academic History

Ph.D, Indiana University

MSc, University of Toronto

My Links

Tseng Lab website: https://www.bugsandplankton.com/

Contact Information

Email
tsengm@mail.ubc.ca
Office Location
Room 110, Biodiversity Research Centre
Lab Location
BRC 280

Research Information

Research Abstract

Aquatic and Insect Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

  • ​​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 Interests

Plankton & Freshwater Ecosystems

  • Warming and nutrient availability in aquatic ecosystems
  • Microplastics, warming, and aquatic ecosystem heath
  • Arctic plankton responses to climate change

Insect Communities

  • Warming, fitness, and flight performance in butterflies
  • 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
  • Adaptive significance of smaller body/cell sizes in warmer environments
  • Trophic significance of rapid phytoplankton evolution to warming
Team Members

Erez Büyükyilmaz - Honours thesis student / Undergrad Researcher

Sophia Fan - MSc Student

Jihyun Kim - MSc Student

Natasha Klasios  - PhD Student

Markus Thormeyer - PhD Student

Selected Publications

Select Publications

Google Scholar Profile: link
* 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.
  • 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​.
  • 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
  • ​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 
  • ​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