YIP Zhi Ting


Research Assistant




Email: dbsyzt(AT)nus.edu.sg



Background

I am a Life Sciences undergraduate specializing in environmental biology and minoring in aquatic ecology. I was always fascinated with marine megafauna, and subsequently grew fond of nudibranch as well.

Honours Project

I previously worked on reassessing the diversity of Sargassum macroalgae in Singapore, using molecular phylogenetic analyses for an undergraduate research project. Extensive taxonomic revisions on this group of macroalgae have been carried out in many regions, including Singapore. Such studies were driven by the significant discrepancy between the number of species recorded in literature, and those currently found in local waters.

Sargassum are vital ecosystem engineers and they provide complex habitats for many marine organisms. For my final year project, I would be elucidating the evolutionary relationships between Sargassum species and their biogeographic history. This would be done through reconstructing a global phylogeny of the macroalgal genus, because Sargassum diversity reassessments thus far have only been carried out in geographic isolation.