Contact Information
Biography
Dr. Brawn investigates how climate change and land use affect biodiversity. With an emphasis on birds in Illinois and tropical ecosystems, he is advancing understanding of how we can conserve populations and communities of wildlife. He also studies the role of wildlife in the dynamics of infectious diseases such as West Nile Virus.
Research Description
Conservation biology; comparative population and community ecology of vertebrates, especially birds; tropical ecology; statistical ecology; molecular evolutionary ecology
Dr. Brawn investigates how climate change and land use affect biodiversity. With an emphasis on birds in Illinois and tropical ecosystems, he is advancing understanding of how we can conserve populations and communities of wildlife. He also studies the role of wildlife in the dynamics of infectious diseases such as West Nile Virus.
Education
B.S., Wildlife Biology, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 1975
M.S., Wildlife Ecology, University of Missouri-Columbia, 1979
Ph.D., Zoology-Ecology, Northern Arizona University, 1986
Additional Campus Affiliations
Professor Emeritus, Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences
Recent Publications
McMillan, J. R., Hamer, G. L., Levine, R. S., Mead, D. G., Waller, L. A., Goldberg, T. L., Walker, E. D., Brawn, J. D., Ruiz, M. O., Kitron, U., & Vazquez-Prokopec, G. (2023). Multi-Year Comparison of Community- and Species-Level West Nile Virus Antibody Prevalence in Birds from Atlanta, Georgia and Chicago, Illinois, 2005–2016. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 108(2), 366-376. https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.21-1086
Pollock, H. S., Toms, J. D., Tarwater, C. E., Benson, T. J., Karr, J. R., & Brawn, J. D. (2022). Long-term monitoring reveals widespread and severe declines of understory birds in a protected Neotropical forest. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119(16), [2108731119]. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2108731119
Tobias, J. A., Sheard, C., Pigot, A. L., Devenish, A. J. M., Yang, J., Sayol, F., Neate-Clegg, M. H. C., Alioravainen, N., Weeks, T. L., Barber, R. A., Walkden, P. A., MacGregor, H. E. A., Jones, S. E. I., Vincent, C., Phillips, A. G., Marples, N. M., Montaño-Centellas, F. A., Leandro-Silva, V., Claramunt, S., ... Schleuning, M. (2022). AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters, 25(3), 581-597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898
Hauber, M. E., Taylor, D. M., & Brawn, J. D. (2021). Variable or atypical? Comparing unusual songs of the Tufted Titmouse with a citizen-science database. Journal of Ornithology, 162(1), 313-316. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-020-01839-9
Merrill, L., Jones, T. M., Brawn, J. D., & Ward, M. P. (2021). Early-life patterns of growth are linked to levels of phenotypic trait covariance and postfledging mortality across avian species. Ecology and Evolution, 11(22), 15695-15707. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8231