Tiff Ki

PhD Topic: Museum collections, climate change, conservation and tropical montane butterflies.

PhD supervisor(s): Professor Jane Hill, Dr Blanca Huertas and Dr Colin Beale

Biography

I completed my undergraduate studies in Education with Biological Sciences at the University of Cambridge, where I investigated long-term changes in aquatic insects using the UMZCs Insect Collection. I took my MSc in Applied Ecology and Conservation at the University of East Anglia, where I investigated drivers of Mute Swan population change in England and Wales. I then worked on the British Ecological Society’s Policy team. I joined LCAB in 2021 to start my PhD, where I use museum collections to understand long-term changes in tropical butterflies in response to climate change and rainforest conversion.

Research

I am a conservation scientist interested in understanding how biodiversity and ecosystems work, especially urban and more novel ecosystems, and in turn understanding how best to reconcile human development and conservation. I am particularly fascinated by insects, and using museum collections to understand long-term biodiversity change and inform effective conservation action today.

My PhD focuses on understanding the long-term responses of Sulawesi (Indonesia) butterflies to climate change and rainforest loss, and how these responses interact and change across time. I am supervised by Prof. Jane Hill, Dr. Colin Beale (LCAB) and Dr. Blanca Huertas (NHMUK).

I also lead a long-term research project, with Victoria Smith (Cambridge City Council) and Dr. Ed Turner (University of Cambridge), which evaluates the effectiveness of a brownfield-like habitat restoration scheme. I have been supported by the Varley-Gradwell Travelling Fellowship in Insect Ecology and the Balfour-Browne Trust Fund.

Publication highlights

Ki, T.L.T., Pain, D.J., Gill, J.A., & Green, R.E. (2023). Relationship of Mute Swan Cygnus olor population trends in Great Britain to environmental change. Bird Study.

Chang, Q., Ki, T.L.T., Anderson, G.Q.A., Brides, K., Clark, N.A., Ding, J., Leung, K.K.S., Li, J., Melville, D.S., Phillips, J., Weston, E., Yang, Z. and Green, R.E. (2021). Numbers of Spoon-billed Sandpipers in Jiangsu Province, China, during the post-breeding moult in relation to recent changes in the intertidal zone, Wader Study, 128(2).

Ki, T.L.T., McKain, S., Clavey, L., Stafford, R., Montgomery, L., Morrison-Bell, C. and Chamberlain, B. (2021). Introduction. In Stafford, R., et al. (eds) Nature-based Solutions for Climate Change in the UK: A Report by the British Ecological Society. London, UK, pp. 13-22.

Ki, T.L.T., Pain, D., Gill, J.A., & Green., R.E. Relationship of Mute Swan Cygnus olor population trends in Britain to environmental change. Under review.

Funder

• York Graduate Research School