Biography
I completed my BSC Hons in Conservation Biology and Ecology at the University of Exeter in 2016, after three years of study and one year abroad where I attended Monash University in Victoria, Australia. In my final year I conducted a research project investigating the effect of climate change on blue tit feather development.
I then went on to UCL to continue my studies in an MRes in Biodiversity, Evolution and Conservation from 2016-17, where I undertook two research projects at the Natural History Museum of London (NHM) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). At the NHM I described a new species of psyllid from Baltic amber, and re-described a poorly preserved psyllid specimen using new technology (micro-CT scanning). At ZSL I investigated the genetic diversity of a small isolated population of wild adders, in association with Froglife.
I joined the Insect Ecology Group at the University of Cambridge in September 2019 for a PhD in Zoology.
Research
I am interested in how temperature affects butterfly larval growth, survival, and distribution, with a particular focus on how they use their local environment (microclimate) to thermoregulate and buffer air temperature, and how this compares across life stages. We need to understand how insects will respond to changing temperatures at all life stages in order to inform nature reserve design and management to remain of conservation value, and to prioritise and direct conservation efforts in the face of climate change.
Publications
Ashe-Jepson, E., Garbout, A., Ouvrard, D. Phylogeny of the Eocene Aphalarinae (Hemiptera: Psylloidea) from Baltic amber, with description of a new species using X-ray micro-computed tomography scanning, and a new genus synonymy. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 2019. 17, 1233-1244, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14772019.2018.1518345
