We have been awarded a new Tier 2 grant by Singapore’s Ministry of Education to develop new models for assessing the viability of species’ populations in variable environments. Population viability analysis is widely used to assess species’ extinction risk, but there is a need to develop more sophisticated methods for incorporating variation in environmental conditions over time. This is especially true given increasingly volatile climate conditions around the world. This grant will allow us to develop these methods and apply them to key focal species in Singapore, including pangolins (Manis javanica) and straw-headed bulbuls (Pycnonotus zeylanicus).

The grant involves co-principal investigators Frank Rheindt and Lim Jun Ying from NUS, and collaborators Chong Kwek Yan from Singapore National Parks, Shawn Lum and Ngo Kang Min from Nanyang Technological University, and Roopali Ragahavan from Mandai Wildlife Group.