Research

My research spans taxonomic discovery, conservation genomics, anthropogenic impacts, biosecurity, and nature digitization — united by a commitment to understanding and reversing insect biodiversity loss through rigorous field, genomic, and computational approaches.

Research Themes

Nature Digitization & Biological Inspiration

Translating physical biological entities — from single specimens to whole environments, spanning the forest floor to the canopy — into high-dimensional digital datasets to uncover hidden evolutionary and ecological rules. This work involves building and deploying custom measurement instruments to capture complex, non-visible traits, collecting data at scale, and constructing AI-driven analytical pipelines to extract meaning from it. The resulting insights feed into bioinspiration, conservation, and our understanding of how life adapts to a changing world.

High-throughput digitizationMultispectral reflectanceComputational ecologyNanoscale structural analysisAI & machine learning

Taxonomic Discovery & Biodiversity Informatics

Cataloging insect biodiversity through species descriptions, taxonomic revisions of cryptic groups like the ant genus Cerapachys, and altitudinal surveys in hotspots such as the Hengduan Mountains. This work synthesizes discoveries into accessible databases like GABI-I, establishing the ecological baselines needed to map global distributions and prioritize conservation.

Systematic taxonomySpecies descriptionRegional checklistsGlobal biodiversity databasesInsular fauna mapping

Conservation Genomics & Endemic Species Decline

Applying community genomics to contemporary and historical museum collections to reconstruct long-term demographic trends spanning millions of years. This approach has quantified massive, human-driven population declines in endemic island insects — providing vital historical context for the biodiversity crisis and highlighting the extreme vulnerability of island species.

Population genomicsHistorical demographyIsland biogeographyTracking species declinesMuseum collections

Anthropogenic Impacts & Ecosystem Resilience

Evaluating how land-use conversion — such as the transition from primary tropical rainforests to rubber plantations — and climate change compound to reshape ecological assemblages. By measuring simultaneous shifts in taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity, this work reveals how habitat degradation unravels species interactions and permanently reduces the resilience of insect communities.

Land-use conversionClimate-habitat interactionsFunctional & phylogenetic diversityAgricultural expansionEcosystem resilience

Biosecurity & Biological Invasion Risks

Using digital surveillance — including web scraping of geotagged e-commerce data — to monitor the global online trade of exotic insects. Integrating these datasets with trait-based analysis and species distribution modeling proactively identifies non-native species with high establishment potential, delivering actionable intelligence for biosecurity policy and invasion risk assessment.

Biological invasionsWildlife trade monitoringSpecies distribution modelingTrait-based risk assessmentE-commerce surveillance

Publications

34 peer-reviewed publications

High-throughput phenomics of global ant biodiversity

Katzke J, Hita Garcia F, ... Liu C ... et al.

Nature Methods(2026)

Genomic signatures indicate massive decline of endemic island insects

Liu C*, Sarnat E, Tan JA, Janicki J, Deyrup J, Ogasawara M, Grau ML, Qiu LJ, Hita Garcia F, Fischer G, Caginotoba A, Narula N, Darwell C, Kubota Y, Pierce N, Mikheyev AS*, Economo EP*

Science(2025)

Partner dependency alters patterns of coevolutionary selection in mutualisms

Vidal M, Liu C, Wang SP, Segraves KA

PNAS(2025)

Dispersal promotes the stability and persistence of exploited mutualisms

Liu C* and Vidal M

The ISME Journal(2025)

Taxonomy of the ant genus Cerapachys Smith, 1857 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in China with description of a new species

Liu C*, Hita Garcia F, Peng YQ, Pierce N

Asian Myrmecology(2024)

Habitat fragmentation drives pest termite risk in humid, but not arid, biomes

Wu DH, Liu C, Caron FS, Luo YY, Pie MR, Yu MJ, Eggleton P, Chu CJ*

One Earth(2024)

Interspecific Host Variation and Biotic Interactions Drive Pathogen Community Assembly in Chinese Bumblebees

Chen HH, Zhang GS, Ding GL, Huang JX, Zhang H, Vidal MC, Corlett RT, Liu C*, An JD

Insects(2023)

Monitoring the online ant trade reveals high biological invasion risk

Wang ZY*, Zeng J, Ran H, Meng WL, Zhou SY, Davis A, Liu C*

Biological Conservation(2023)

GABI-I: The global ant biodiversity informatics-island database

Liu C, Economo EP, Guénard B*

Ecology(2023)

Updating the taxonomy of the ant genus Myrmecina (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in China with descriptions of three new species

Liu C*, Fischer G, Liu Q, Peng YQ, Economo EP, Guénard B

Zootaxa(2022)

Fieldwork

Research expeditions across three continents.

Hengduan Mountains, China

Altitudinal surveys of ant diversity across one of the world's most biodiverse mountain regions.

Okinawa, Japan

Island community genomics — understanding colonization, radiation, and decline in Pacific island ants.

Borneo

Tropical rainforest biodiversity surveys in one of the oldest rainforests on Earth.

Samoa

First records of cryptic ant subfamilies from remote Pacific islands.

Xishuangbanna, China

Fig wasp ecology and rubber plantation biodiversity research in tropical Yunnan.