Welcome!
My name is Natalia Ershova (but everyone calls me Natasha) and I'm currently a graduate student in the Pfister-Wootton Lab at the University of Chicago, Department of Ecology and Evolution.
My main research interests are the effect of macroparasites on marine communities and parasite host coevolution and adaptation to changing climate conditions. Currently, I am mostly interested in the ecological role of trematode parasites on intertidal communities of the Cape Cod area. |
About me
From 2011 to 2017 I studied at the Lomonosov Moscow State University in Moscow, Russia and received a B.S. in Biology and a M.S. in Invertebrate Zoology and Ecology. During those years most of my field research was done at the Pertsov White Sea Biological Station (WSBS), located on the Kandalaksha Bay of the White Sea in Russia.
Both my bachelors and masters theses were devoted to the study of the morphology and anatomy of sea cucumbers, the modeling of their coelomic systems and the phylogenetic reconstruction of Echinodermata. I examined the anatomy and morphology of Chiridota laevis, a holothurian from the order Apodida, and performed detailed microscopic studies using light, transmission and scanning electronic microscopy and the 3D reconstruction of the coelomic system of this species.
Publications
Ezhova, Olga V., Ekaterina A. Lavrova, Natalia A. Ershova, and Vladimir V. Malakhov. " Microscopic anatomy of the axial complex and associated structures in the brittle star Ophiura robusta Ayres, 1854 (Echinodermata, Ophiuroidea) ." Zoomorphology 134, no. 2 (2015): 247-258.
Ezhova, Olga V., Natalia A. Ershova, and Vladimir V. Malakhov. "Microscopic anatomy of the axial complex and associated structures in the sea cucumber Chiridota laevis Fabricius, 1780 (Echinodermata, Holothuroidea)." Zoomorphology 136, no. 2 (2017): 205-217.
Ershova, N. (2018), Digest: Ecological crossover effects on sexual selection*. Evolution. doi:10.1111/evo.13588
Ezhova, Olga V., Natalia A. Ershova, and Vladimir V. Malakhov. "Microscopic anatomy of the axial complex and associated structures in the sea cucumber Chiridota laevis Fabricius, 1780 (Echinodermata, Holothuroidea)." Zoomorphology 136, no. 2 (2017): 205-217.
Ershova, N. (2018), Digest: Ecological crossover effects on sexual selection*. Evolution. doi:10.1111/evo.13588