Gail Ashton

Caprellidae: Ghost Shrimp

Post-doctoral fellow in the Marine Invasions Laboratory of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

EOL Fellow, Marine Invasions Laboratory of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Gail Ashton is a post-doctoral fellow in the Marine Invasions Laboratory of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and is based in San Francisco, CA. In 2003, she completed a BSc in Marine Biology at the University of Wales, Swansea and subsequently moved to the West coast of Scotland to begin a PhD program (Scottish Association for Marine Science and University of Aberdeen). In Scotland, she studied the distribution and dispersal of non-native species which fuelled her interest in both marine invertebrates and invasion ecology. Her study species was a crustacean that has been introduced throughout the northern hemisphere and continues to be recorded from new locations. Continuing her research career at the Smithsonian Institute since 2007, she has developed keen taxonomy skills, particularly pertaining to species of caprellid amphipod and non-native marine organisms, with peer-reviewed publications in the same. Other research interests and project topics include: taxonomy and latitudinal distribution of caprellids; human transport mechanisms as vectors of non-native species; attributes contributing to the success of a species; and phylogenetic analysis as a tool in invasion ecology.