Dr. Sean Yap

Academic Qualifications

Ph.D. in Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore

B.Sc. (Honours) in Biological Sciences with Minor in Aquatic Ecology

Research areas

Conservation Technology, Tropical Ecology, Insect Ecology

Research interests

Sean is interested in the use of new technologies and AI for biodiversity monitoring and conservation applications. He is also interested in invertebrate ecology, especially the exploration of lesser-known potential ecological indicator groups.

Biography

Sean Yap is a research fellow at the Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions. His current research aims to employ conservation technology to monitor biodiversity and address conservation questions remotely and cost-effectively. As a forest ecologist, he has experience studying insect ecology and evolution (particularly of dung beetles and saproxylic arthropods) in terrestrial ecosystems such as tropical lowland mixed dipterocarp forest and peat swamp forests. On the side, he continues to pursue research in insect and terrestrial isopod taxonomy.

Apart from formal research, Sean is a member of the Entomological Network of Singapore and the Herpetological Society of Singapore, participating in outreach activities to raise awareness about local biodiversity and biodiversity research.

Selected publications:

• Yap, S., Toh, K. X., & Puniamoorthy N. (2024). Male reproductive traits display increased phenotypic variation in response to resource quality and parental provisioning in a tropical rainforest dung beetle, Onthophagus c.f. babirussa. Ecology and Evolution, 14(10), e70421 (Joint first author)
• Abdul Rahman, I. L., Yap, S., Goh, T. G., Toh, K. X., Yee, Q. Q. H., & Puniamoorthy, N. (2021). Vertical stratification of dung beetles in young secondary forests of Singapore. Biotropica. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.13000 (Joint first author)
• Toh, K. X., Yap, S., Goh, T. G., & Puniamoorthy, N. (2022). Sexual size dimorphism and male reproductive traits vary across populations of a tropical rainforest dung beetle species (Onthophagus babirussa). Ecology and Evolution, 12(9), e9279. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9279 (Joint first author)

Feature and publications in popular media:

• https://www.facebook.com/MothershipSG/posts/seans-research-on-dung-beetles-requires-him-to-literally-stir-sht-not-just-his-o/2429301503776154/
• https://www.nus.edu.sg/newshub/news/2016/2016-08/2016-08-26/2016-0826-st-pB12.pdf
• https://rafflespress.com/2024/03/11/insects-enthusiast-turned-entomologist-dr-sean-yap/

Conference and presentations:

• Yap S, Puniamoorthy N. 2020 Islands of diversity in an island nation. Examining the ecology of dung beetles in the young secondary forests of Singapore using Next-generation sequencing. British Ecological Society Festival of Ecology. Online - Oral presentation.
• Yap S, Mrinalini, Chang JJM, Yeo H, Slade EM, Puniamoorthy N. 2022 An integrative look at the divergence of dung beetles in the Malay Peninsula and Borneo. Congress of the European Society of Evolutionary Biology. Prague, Czech Republic - Poster presentation.
• Yap S, Lam WN, Zamanulalam AMA, Cobb AR, Sukri RS, Harvey CF, Wardle DA, Slade EM. 2024 Investigating the effect of habitat degradation on saproxylic arthropod diversity and ecosystem functions in the peat swamp forests of Brunei Darussalam. International Congress of Entomology. Kyoto, Japan – Poster presentation.