Philip Ashmole
Nelson Philip Ashmole (born 11 January 1934 in
. Other interests include insects and spiders, of which Ashmole discovered and described some new taxa.Career
In 1957, Ashmole graduated to
Postdoctoral Ashmole worked as demonstrator at the
Ashmole collected subfossil material of extinct bird species, including the Saint Helena hoopoe,[3] the Ascension night heron[4] and the Ascension crake.[4] During a month-long research period on fossil birds on Saint Helena in 1959, Ashmole and his colleague Doug Dorward discovered the forceps pincers of the Saint Helena earwig, a species which was rediscovered in 1965 for a short term.
Philip and Myrtle Ashmole are also active in the
In 2015, Philip and Myrtle Ashmole received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the RSPB Nature of Scotland Awards.[5]
Ashmole's halo
Ashmole's work on Ascension Island led him to propose a hypothesis about how large concentrations of seabirds might be able to deplete forage fish resources in the vicinity of their breeding colonies, creating a zone of reduced food availability that would influence foraging and breeding success and behaviour.[6] This zone was later termed "Ashmole's halo" by other researchers.[7] The concept has since been widely used in ecological studies of seabirds, and found to apply in varying degrees to many different species and ecological regions.[8]
Selected works
- P. Ashmole, M. Ashmole: Comparative Feeding Ecology of Sea Birds of a Tropical Oceanic Island. Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, 1967
- M. Ashmole, P. Ashmole: Natural history excursions in Tenerife: A guide to the countryside, plants and animals. Kidston Mill Press, 1989. ISBN 0951454404
- P. Ashmole, M. Ashmole: St. Helena and Ascension Island: a natural history. Anthony Nelson, Oswestry, 2000. ISBN 0904614611
- M. Ashmole, P. Ashmole: The Carrifran Wildwood Story: Ecological Restoration from the Grass Roots, Borders Forest Trust, 2009. ISBN 0953434648
- P. Ashmole, M. Ashmole: Natural History of Tenerife, Whittles Publishing, Dunbeath, 2016. ISBN 978-184995-225-5
References
- ^ ISBN 0948875755.
- ^ ISBN 978-0199922642
- ^ Storrs L. Olson. (1975). Paleornithology of St Helena Island, south Atlantic Ocean. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 23.
- ^ a b Bourne, W. R. P., Ashmole, N. P. & Simmons K. E. L.: A new subfossil night heron and a new genus for the extinct rail from Ascension Island, central tropical Atlantic Ocean. Ardea 91, issue 1, 2003: p. 45-51
- ^ RSPB Nature of Scotland Awards: List of Winners
- .
- .
- ^ Gaston, A. J.; Ydenberg, R. C.; Smith, G. J. (2007). "Ashmole's halo and population regulation in seabirds". Marine Ornithology. 35 (2): 119–126.