Program Results

Introduction to the event

1.Research Achievements:

With support from the Ministry of Education's Yushan Young Scholar Program, we continued our field sampling and monitoring along the urban-rural gradient in northern Taiwan from the previous year. Over two years (2022–2025), we successfully completed detailed field sampling and microclimate data collection, and initial data analyses have been conducted.

2.Teaching Contributions:

Dr. Syuan-Jyun Sun actively fosters talent in ecology, evolution and biodiversity research. This year, one master's student and one doctoral student graduated, while three additional master's students continue their research on habitat change impacts on behavioural ecology. Dr. Sun offers approximately seven courses each semester, most of which are taught entirely in English, promoting interdisciplinary and international exchanges. Notably, Dr. Sun's elective course, ‘Behavioural Ecology in a Changing World,’ received funding from NTU's Teaching Practice Project. The course uses a flipped classroom and problem-based learning approach to actively engage students from diverse fields in behavioural ecology (see attached photo taken at Yilan Fushan Botanical Garden), significantly enhancing student learning outcomes. Dr. Sun’s teaching excellence was also recognized by National Taiwan University, receiving the Teaching Excellence Award for full-time faculty in the 2024 academic year.

3.Publications:

This year, seven papers were published in international academic journals. Notably, laboratory-controlled temperature experiments simulating urban heat island effects revealed that heat stress influences parental care behaviours and reproductive performance. These findings have been published in the journals Royal Society Open Science and Proceedings B.