Research overview: the TEAM Network and tropical camera-trap monitoring

The Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network pioneered standardized, long-term camera-trap monitoring of terrestrial mammals and birds across multiple tropical forest sites worldwide. This overview surveys how TEAM established common protocols for camera placement, array design, and survey timing so that biodiversity could be measured consistently and compared across continents, generating early indicators of how tropical mammal communities change. It discusses the network's contributions to data standardization, its open datasets, and its influence on later large-scale initiatives and platforms. By demonstrating that coordinated, protocol-driven camera trapping could yield comparable, policy-relevant biodiversity indicators, TEAM helped launch the era of networked wildlife monitoring. The overview highlights its legacy in shaping how the field thinks about standardization, long-term commitment, and the aggregation of camera data into global biodiversity intelligence.