Dr Tom Jameson

Tom is part of the Cambridge Climate, Life and Earth (C-CLEAR) doctoral training programme at the University of Cambridge. He works within the Department of Zoology and the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge. He is supervised by Dr Jason Head and is working with Chester Zoo to investigate the response of large ecologically important reptiles (primarily monitor lizards) to climate change. His PhD is funded by NERC and Chester Zoo, and is supported by the IUCN Species Survival Commission monitor lizard species specialist group.

“I am a conservation biologist and herpetologist with an interest in how evolutionary history can inform conservation planning. I have a broad academic background in evolutionary biology, ecology, and applied conservation science. For my MPhil I worked with the University of Cambridge and the Natural History Museum, London to describe several new species of endangered frogs from Mexico. I have also worked within the Lower Vertebrates and Invertebrates Department at Chester Zoo, carrying out applied conservation research and assisting with coordinating field programs and reintroduction efforts.

This project is an opportunity to synthesize many of my past experiences and interests in tackling one of the most pressing conservation issues of the age, climate change.

Many large reptiles are important keystone species, acting as top predators, scavengers, nutrient linkers, and seed dispersers. Many such keystone reptiles are also highly threatened by habitat loss, unsustainable hunting, and climate change. To respond to the threat posed by climate change detailed predictions of the responses of large reptiles to climate change are required. With such predictions strategies can be planned to ensure the future survival of target species and the wider ecosystems that depend upon them.

In this project I will be using a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the relationship between past, present, and future ranges of large reptiles (primarily monitor lizards) and climate. This approach will combine classical field ecology techniques with new machine-learning based modelling techniques in building models of the responses of large reptiles to climate change. Alongside modern ecological data I will also be utilizing palaeontological data in model construction under a conservation paleobiology approach, using the past to inform the future.

The results of models will be used to contribute to conservation actions plans in identifying appropriate responses to climate change, such as targeting locations and species for translocations, reintroductions, and rewilding.”

PUBLICATIONS

Jameson, T. J. M., Tapley, B., Barbon, A. R., Goetz, M., Harding, L., Lopez, J., Upton, K., Gerardo, G. (2019). Best Practice Guidelines for the Mountain Chicken (Leptodactylus fallax). European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Jameson, T. J. M., Blankenship, J., Christensen, T., Lopez, J., Garcia, G. (2019). Wild diet of the critically endangered mountain chicken (Leptodactylus fallax). Herpetological Journal 29(4).
Garcia, G., Jameson, T. J. M., Prince., H., Flewitt, A., Papp, T., Richardson, A., Lopez, J., Outerbridge, M. E., Ovaska, K. (2020). Reintroduction of the Bermuda Snail. BIAZA Field Conservation & Native Species Conference, Chester, UK.